Since early this morning, several authorities have been taking action nationwide against the authors of misogynistic posts on the Internet. A targeted search is also being made for possible connections to political extremism.
The authorities have carried out searches in eleven federal states against authors of criminally relevant, misogynistic postings on the Internet. As part of a day of action, searches and interrogations of a total of 45 suspects have been taking place since 6 a.m., the Federal Criminal Police Office said.
In addition, measures were taken for 37 defendants for whom cases had already been processed in advance. They are involved Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (ZIT) the General Prosecutor’s Office in Frankfurt am Main, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and other federal law enforcement authorities. According to the BKA, those affected by the measures are Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Brandenburg, Bremen, Hesse, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein.
Targeted search on the internet
The day of action is part of the “Combating Misogyny on the Internet” project, which has been running since 2022. This would determine the scope, criminal liability and relevance for state protection of such postings and also examine potential connections to political extremism. On this basis, investigations into digital hate crimes to the detriment of women would also be initiated, it said.
The BKA specifically searched for such posts with criminal relevance on online platforms, followed by a preliminary criminal law assessment by the ZIT. After the alleged authors had been identified, they were forwarded to the respective public prosecutor’s offices in the federal states in order to decide on possible investigations.
Different forms of Misogyny
The basis for the initiative is a ruling by the Cologne Higher Regional Court, in which it was confirmed that general denigrations of women can be punishable as incitement to hatred (File number 1 RVs 77/20).
The various manifestations of misogyny on the Internet that ZIT and BKA identified included postings in which women were sexually slandered and insulted or publicly asked to send nude photos. The authorities also discovered posts advocating rape or sexual assault or even videos of torture and killings being publicly distributed.