When two police officers were shot in Kusel, Rhineland-Palatinate in 2022, users on social networks posted things like “2,250 headshots were cleaned, the shooter was simply better,” or “That serves them right!!!!!!! Complete awesome” and next to it seven heartily laughing smileys. For the Bavarian justice system, these were clear cases of criminal offenses. The authors of the comments were punished with 60 daily rates, which is equivalent to two months’ salary, as the new hate speech commissioner for the Bavarian judiciary, David Beck, explained on Thursday.
And then there are other examples. A house with a chimney from which a rainbow appears to come out, with the comment: “I suspect my neighbor (sic) heats with gays.” A black and white picture, probably from the Nazi era, in which a uniformed man forcefully forces people into a train compartment, accompanied by the sentence: “Enjoy life to the fullest.” The images come from investigations conducted by Beck. “Someone may have found it funny, burning gays or putting Jews on trains, but that ultimately destroys the climate in our society.”
The 36-year-old has been in office since February 15th and coordinates the 22 Bavarian special departments that were set up to prosecute hate speech on the Internet. He replaces Teresa Ott, who held the office from 2022 to 2024. On Thursday he presented the annual results of the fight against hate speech online. The hatred has reached “terrifying proportions”.
In 2023, 3,115 new proceedings for hate speech were conducted in Bavaria (including 458 proceedings against unknown people), an increase of 28 percent compared to 2022 with 2,435 proceedings. Lawsuits were filed in 728 cases and final convictions were made in 411 cases. 954 cases were discontinued because the perpetrators could not be identified or the suspicion was not substantiated.
Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich (CSU) called on the operators of social media platforms to cooperate with the investigative authorities “without ifs and buts.” It cannot be the case that one makes billions in profits but does not dedicate enough time to curbing hate speech. However, the boundaries between freedom of expression and a criminal offense are not always easy to grasp. “Freedom of expression ends where criminal law begins,” he said.
The statistics also provide information about the motivation for the crime: 568 cases were directed against hate messages motivated by xenophobia. Last year there were around 150 fewer. 481 hate messages were directed against Jews, almost 100 more than in the previous year. In general, said Eisenreich, the Gaza conflict is making itself felt, which is why he called for a nationwide ban on the slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” He considers it a criminal offense of sedition because it does not recognize Israel’s right to exist. Furthermore, 88 hate messages were directed against Christians or Muslims, 64 against people with disabilities, 61 against women and 112 against the sexual orientation and identity of other people.
Beck, who has been responsible for anti-Semitism, hate crime and organized crime in the Kempten public prosecutor’s office since 2020, called on those affected to report hate comments. In the fight against hate speech, the Ministry of Justice has set up online platforms with which suspected criminal hate messages can be reported quickly and easily to the public prosecutor’s office.