Fascism is back in Germany. Please don't post speech that could offend anyone.

Germany is prosecuting online trolls. Here's how the country is fighting hate speech on the internet.

Dozens of police teams across Germany raided homes before dawn in a coordinated crackdown on a recent Tuesday. The state police weren't looking for drugs or guns, they were looking for people suspected of posting hate speech online.

As prosecutors explain it, the German constitution protects free speech, but not hate speech. And here's where it gets tricky: German law prohibits speech that could incite hatred or is deemed insulting. Perpetrators are sometimes surprised to learn that what they post online is illegal, according to Dr. Matthäus Fink, one of the state prosecutors tasked with policing Germany's robust hate speech laws

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/germany-online-hate-speech-prosecution-60-minutes/

Yes, it is illegal to insult politicians in Germany. Under the German Criminal Code (§185-188 StGB), public insults, defamation, and malicious gossip directed at officials—from local to federal levels—can be prosecuted

Convictions can result in fines or up to three years in prison for insults against political figures. 

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-greens-habeck-presses-charges-over-online-insult/a-70793557#:~:text=Is%20merely%20'insulting'%20a%20politician,online%20communications%20could%20also%20qualify.

If that applied to this forum most posters including myself would be charged with hurty feely crimes.

I want to leave this planet please.

4 minutes ago, blaze master said:

If that applied to this forum most posters including myself would be charged with hurty feely crimes.

I'll wager the server that runs this site is not parked in Germany

6 minutes ago, TedG said:

I'll wager the server that runs this site is not parked in Germany

Im offended with your reply. How dare you.

Hmmm? Same thing happens in the UK and Australia. So I guess that's also fascism. How about the US. Does it happen there because Trump is a fascist isn't he? Germany, UK, Australia and other countries where "freedom" is being controlled by the state are all progressive left.

1 minute ago, dinsdale said:

Hmmm? Same thing happens in the UK and Australia. So I guess that's also fascism. How about the US. Does it happen there because Trump is a fascist isn't he? Germany, UK, Australia and other countries where "freedom" is being controlled by the state are all progressive left.

In Germany you can be tossed in jail for insulting a politician. In the USA people insult Trump daily with no worry.

Think for a minute about the country this forum was about and where many posters live.

The U. S. Really should disengage from these Euros nonsense and leave them to their troubles - because they have got them. Like the Euros are trying to drag the U.S. into a proxy war with Russia . Let them knock themselves out with this Ukraine rabbit hole.

Everyone here is living in a country where defamation is a crime. Most seem to think the authorities are kind to foreigners but insult a politician and you can be prosecuted. Why look to Germany when insults here can land you in prison?

42 minutes ago, Purdey said:

Everyone here is living in a country where defamation is a crime. Most seem to think the authorities are kind to foreigners but insult a politician and you can be prosecuted. Why look to Germany when insults here can land you in prison?

Probably because the authorities here can't read English, so they mostly don't know what anyone is saying.

2 hours ago, TedG said:

I'll wager the server that runs this site is not parked in Germany

Singapore!

16 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

Singapore!

Singapore: Laws Chill Free Speech, Assembly

End Repressive Prosecutions, Regulations, and Civil Suits

The Singapore government’s use of overly broad criminal laws, oppressive regulations, and civil lawsuits severely curtails freedom of speech and assembly, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

“Singapore promotes itself as a modern nation and a good place to do business, but people in a country that calls itself a democracy shouldn’t be afraid to criticize their government or speak out about political issues,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Direct and indirect restrictions on speech and public protest have long stifled debate on matters of public interest in Singapore.”

https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/12/13/singapore-laws-chill-free-speech-assembly

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Probably because the authorities here can't read English, so they mostly don't know what anyone is saying.

I wonder why everyone I know speaks English. I have a friend who used to work for the security service (the NSC). Excellent English.

Fascism is again fashionable in the West. It's not just Germany alone. It's the same countries and monied families who supported Hitler and the rise of the Nazis and the Partito Nazionale Fascista. Personal liberties will go out the window, again, such as is happening in numerous countries in the EU as well as the United States' Western allies.
And with neo-Fascism comes war. And it's here. Ever wonder what living through WW2 was like. You, I, and the rest of humanity is about to find out - again!

1 hour ago, Purdey said:

I wonder why everyone I know speaks English. I have a friend who used to work for the security service (the NSC). Excellent English.

Probably because you can't speak Thai.

Germany is getting stoopid. Letting their military fade away, depending on Russia for energy, and bloviating relentlessly.

And the irony is that the political elite have the gall to try and disparage the AfD. Calling them racists when the leader is a gay woman whose wife is a Sri Lankan.

1 hour ago, BritManToo said:

Probably because you can't speak Thai.

I am fluent. I happen to work in a global company where all Thais must speak, read and write English. I do speak Thai with my driver.

8 hours ago, TedG said:

Yes, it is illegal to insult politicians in Germany. Under the German Criminal Code (§185-188 StGB), public insults, defamation, and malicious gossip directed at officials—from local to federal levels—can be prosecuted

Convictions can result in fines or up to three years in prison for insults against political figures. 

https://www.dw.com/en/germany-greens-habeck-presses-charges-over-online-insult/a-70793557#:~:text=Is%20merely%20'insulting'%20a%20politician,online%20communications%20could%20also%20qualify.

From the DW article:

"The man was arrested on Thursday as part of nationwide police operations against suspected antisemitic hate speech online."

Are you in favor of allowing antisemitic posts on SM? And in particular in Germany?

PS I also find that prosecuting someone for mocking a politician is quite excessive.

"Freedom has more often been lost in small steps by progressive incrementalism, than it has been by catastrophic upheavals such as violence or war."

- James Madison

The EU states are slowly but inexorably taking the steps to shut the mouths of "the peasant class" and to silence the opinions of average citizens whom their leaders consider to be a danger to their own power and the power of the state which has fully embraced Neo-Authoritarianism.

8 hours ago, dinsdale said:

Hmmm? Same thing happens in the UK and Australia. So I guess that's also fascism. How about the US. Does it happen there because Trump is a fascist isn't he? Germany, UK, Australia and other countries where "freedom" is being controlled by the state are all progressive left.

Explain to us a few examples of your guy being open to criticism of his policies, and being willing to engage in constructive dialogue about them.

The EU is fascist.

Needs to be taken down and European states regain their sovereign status, before the Marxists take over!

43 minutes ago, candide said:

From the DW article:

"The man was arrested on Thursday as part of nationwide police operations against suspected antisemitic hate speech online."

Are you in favor of allowing antisemitic posts on SM? And in particular in Germany?

PS I also find that prosecuting someone for mocking a politician is quite excessive.

I will raise my hand and say "yes, I am in favour of allowing antisemitic posts on SM" In any country. Also anti-white, anti-black, anti-British, anti-fat..... freedom is seldom comfortable for everyone.

So-called "hate speech" is another matter. Specific and targeted threats are already treated as a crime, I believe.

2 hours ago, candide said:

From the DW article:

"The man was arrested on Thursday as part of nationwide police operations against suspected antisemitic hate speech online."

Are you in favor of allowing antisemitic posts on SM? And in particular in Germany?

PS I also find that prosecuting someone for mocking a politician is quite excessive.

1 hour ago, Hanaguma said:

I will raise my hand and say "yes, I am in favour of allowing antisemitic posts on SM" In any country. Also anti-white, anti-black, anti-British, anti-fat..... freedom is seldom comfortable for everyone.

So-called "hate speech" is another matter. Specific and targeted threats are already treated as a crime, I believe.

You missread my quote. It was about "antisemitic hate speech".

Germany's past is also a contextual factor which cannot be ignored.

3 hours ago, connda said:

"Freedom has more often been lost in small steps by progressive incrementalism, than it has been by catastrophic upheavals such as violence or war."

- James Madison

The EU states are slowly but inexorably taking the steps to shut the mouths of "the peasant class" and to silence the opinions of average citizens whom their leaders consider to be a danger to their own power and the power of the state which has fully embraced Neo-Authoritarianism.

Why are you calling these actions fascism??. It's mostly the far right AfD being targeted. In Hong Kong arrests are made for online comment about the communist party. Do you call that fascism too? Your OP is false.

4 hours ago, Hanaguma said:

Calling them racists when the leader is a gay woman whose wife is a Sri Lankan.

How does that biblical quote go again? Something about hiding one's light under a bushel?

4 hours ago, Purdey said:

I am fluent. I happen to work in a global company where all Thais must speak, read and write English. I do speak Thai with my driver.

Yup, there's a lot of us just like you up here in Bahn Nawk.

4 hours ago, candide said:

From the DW article:

"The man was arrested on Thursday as part of nationwide police operations against suspected antisemitic hate speech online."

Are you in favor of allowing antisemitic posts on SM? And in particular in Germany?

PS I also find that prosecuting someone for mocking a politician is quite excessive.

I’m on favor of free speech are you? Are you in favor of the cops arresting people for online posts?

54 minutes ago, TedG said:

I’m on favor of free speech are you? Are you in favor of the cops arresting people for online posts?

I am against hate speech.

Investigating people for antisemitic hate speech is not fascism.

7 hours ago, Hanaguma said:

Germany is getting stoopid. Letting their military fade away, depending on Russia for energy, and bloviating relentlessly.

And the irony is that the political elite have the gall to try and disparage the AfD. Calling them racists when the leader is a gay woman whose wife is a Sri Lankan.

The AfD are filthy Russian stooges/fanboys.

End of story.