Two police officers are dead, shot dead during a random vehicle check in Kusel, Rhineland-Palatinate. To cover up that he and an accomplice had previously illegally hunted and killed wildlife, a 38-year-old man fired multiple times at a young police officer and a chief inspector with a shotgun and hunting rifle in the early morning of January 31, 2022. He hit both of them in the head, they did not survive the exchange of fire. Kusel’s double murder triggered public horror, the motive for the bloody crime was hard to understand. But in addition to sympathy and dismay, a completely different mood soon spread on the Internet: hatred. “That’s right for them !!!!!!!! Really awesome,” wrote a user from Bavaria on Facebook, adding seven tear-smiling smileys. Another commented: “two less green so what”.
It’s just a tiny excerpt from a world of ideas that testifies to brutal rawness. The posts can be seen in a presentation by Munich public prosecutor Teresa Ott on Thursday. The so-called Hate Speech Commissioner of the Bavarian judiciary showed these and other examples of hate on the Internet to make it clear: Anyone who expresses inhuman, violent or inflammatory language must expect penalties – also in the digital space. The authors of the Facebook posts were legally prosecuted.
And not just her. In a total of 2,435 cases of hate crime on the Internet, Bavaria’s judiciary took action last year, according to a report presented by Minister of State Georg Eisenreich (CSU) on Thursday. In most cases (401) it is about xenophobic content. “Hate and agitation remain at an alarmingly high level on the Internet,” Eisenreich stated. In the previous year, the number of investigations was 2,317. But the statistics probably only represent a fraction of the criminally relevant representations actually circulating. As the hate speech officer Ott said, the “dark field is very high” and too few cases are reported at all. And even those reported often remain without consequences: the judiciary had to stop 840 investigations last year – because, for example, no perpetrator could be identified.
What stands out in the balance sheet: the rapidly increasing number of cases in which an anti-Semitic background plays a role. Compared to 2021, it has grown by 78 percent to 387 – which is mainly due to conspiracy stories in connection with the corona pandemic, which are rampant on Facebook, Telegram and Co.
With the war in Ukraine, hatred got an “additional breeding ground”.
The faint hope that the brutalization on the Internet would subside after the lifting of many corona restrictions was not fulfilled. Instead, the war in Ukraine gave hatred “additional breeding ground,” according to Justice Minister Eisenreich. He sees a “danger for democracy” in the poisoning of the climate of opinion. That’s why he pushed law enforcement on several levels.
On the one hand, it should be as easy as possible for every citizen to report suspicious posts or messages. Since last July, those affected can on a platform called “Respect!” cases unbureaucratically show and get advice. The offer was used almost 1,300 times in the first six months. There are also separate reporting channels for local politicians and members of parliament, for those affected by anti-Semitism, for queer people and for media houses.
In addition, Eisenreich created special departments at the 22 Bavarian public prosecutor’s offices in 2020 and installed an officer to centrally coordinate the prosecution of hate speech. Munich public prosecutor Teresa Ott has held this office since autumn. Her message on Thursday was that the state does not take hate messages online – regardless of whether a 15-year-old student carelessly shares a picture of Hitler in the Whatsapp group or an 80-year-old hates refugees by e-mail.
A man from northern Bavaria received the highest penalty for hate speech last year. He had sent numerous emails to politicians and parties under a false name, in which he had described refugees as “vermin” and recipients as “filthy refugee whores”. In the end, the judiciary sentenced him to a suspended sentence of one year and eight months.