In the past two years, the hate speech specialists in the Bavarian judiciary have conducted 3,965 cases of hate crime on the Internet. This was announced by the Ministry of Justice on Wednesday in Munich. On January 1, 2020, a hate speech officer was set up centrally for the judiciary in Bavaria. In addition, there are special departments in all 22 Bavarian public prosecutor’s offices for combating hate mail on the Internet.
After the office had previously been held by senior public prosecutor Klaus Dieter Hartleb, Minister of Justice Georg Eisenreich (CSU) introduced public prosecutor Teresa Ott as the new hate speech officer on Wednesday. Hartleb becomes a judge at the Munich Higher Regional Court. “Anyone who wants to protect freedom of expression and democracy must consistently fight criminal hate online. Bavaria’s successes in the fight against hate and hate speech online are thanks to the great commitment of our investigators,” said Eisenreich. Next: Ott have dedicated themselves to their tasks – most recently as a representative of Hartleb – “always with great expertise and energy”.