{"id":1395951,"date":"2022-03-23T09:46:04","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T13:46:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1395951"},"modified":"2022-03-23T09:46:08","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T13:46:08","slug":"thought-police-germany-conducts-mass-raids-over-online-insults-against-politicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/thought-police-germany-conducts-mass-raids-over-online-insults-against-politicians\/","title":{"rendered":"Thought Police: Germany Conducts Mass Raids over Online \u2018Insults\u2019 Against Politicians"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthought-police-germany-conducts-mass-raids-over-online-insults-against-politicians%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1395951&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">Federal police in Germany have conducted mass raids across 13 states on Tuesday over online \u2018insults\u2019 levied against politicians.<\/p>\n<p>A large number of apartments and houses were raided in Germany on Tuesday as Federal police in the country look to prosecute those who made allegedly hateful remarks against elected officials online.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>In total, federal authorities have said that they have checked over 600 statements for so-called \u201ccriminal content\u201d, with 100 people being \u201csearched and questioned\u201d across 13 different German states.<\/p>\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spiegel.de\/netzwelt\/netzpolitik\/hasskriminalitaet-bundesweite-durchsuchungen-und-festnahmen-wegen-hetze-gegen-politiker-im-netz-a-a8f96af2-aa06-44f9-a756-a8135d38dd9d\">report<\/a> by\u00a0<em>Der Spiegel<\/em>, a significant number of raids have also been conducted, with the houses and apartments of those suspected of posting illegal online messages being searched by law enforcement for incriminating evidence.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"de\" dir=\"ltr\">Die <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GStA_FFM_ZIT?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@GStA_FFM_ZIT<\/a> &#038; das BKA sowie weitere Strafverfolgungsbeh\u00f6rden gehen heute mit einem gemeinsamen Aktionstag gegen Verfasser von gezielt gegen Politiker\/innen gerichteten Hasspostings vor. <br \/>Seit 6 Uhr finden Ma\u00dfnahmen gegen \u00fcber 100 Beschuldigte in 13 Bundesl\u00e4ndern statt. 1\/3 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pJckFqEBFv\">pic.twitter.com\/pJckFqEBFv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bundeskriminalamt (@bka) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/bka\/status\/1506170707415388163?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 22, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bka.de\/DE\/Presse\/Listenseite_Pressemitteilungen\/2022\/Presse2022\/220322_PM_Hasspostings.html\">press release<\/a> by Germany\u2019s Federal Criminal Police Office claimed that Tuesday\u2019s so-called \u201cjoint day of action\u201d was sparked by posts targeting politicians around the 2021 Federal elections, with elected officials in Germany having special legal privileges making it illegal for their constituents to level certain insults against them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe basis for these investigations is Section 188 of the Criminal Code (StGB), which was revised in spring 2021 and makes insults, slander and defamation of people in political life particularly punishable,\u201d the Federal Criminal Police Office statement reads.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPublic officials and elected representatives are given special criminal protection under [Section]188 StGB , regardless of the political level, against hate postings,\u201d it continues.<\/p>\n<p>The President of the Federal Criminal Police Office, Holger M\u00fcnch, also commented on the hardline enforcement of Germany\u2019s speech laws, threatening those in the country who would dare insult politicians that they will meet the same fate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the day of action, we are making it clear: Anyone who posts hate messages must expect the police to be at the door afterwards,\u201d\u00a0M\u00fcnch said, also noting that his force has been \u201cpursuing criminal content on the Internet even more intensively since February of this year\u201d.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Another official,\u00a0Hessian Attorney General\u00a0Torsten Kunze, also commented on the German speech crackdown, claiming that it was somehow a necessary measure to protect democracy, though the official did not cite any evidence for this claim.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis day of action illustrates the extent to which public officials and elected representatives are insulted, slandered and threatened on the Internet,\u201d he said. \u201cIn order to prevent the withdrawal of those affected from reaching a level that endangers democracy, we are prosecuting these crimes consistently and in close cooperation with the public prosecutors of the other federal states.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">German Intelligence Agency to Spy on Populist Opposition to Merkel: Report <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uRCDhHzhiu\">https:\/\/t.co\/uRCDhHzhiu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BreitbartLondon\/status\/1367452265901154304?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 4, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Germany\u2019s day of thought police raids against those who are suspected of insulting or defaming elected politicians is only the latest example of the country\u2019s interesting understanding of what protecting democracy means.<\/p>\n<p>The central European country has become infamous for targeting certain political viewpoints, going so far as to put the country\u2019s populist\u00a0Alternative f\u00fcr Deutschland (AfD) party\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/europe\/2022\/03\/11\/court-gives-greenlight-for-german-agency-to-spy-on-populist-party\/\">under surveillance<\/a> as a so-called \u201csuspicious entity\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, when the party tried to challenge this decision in court, it was ruled that the state spying on the political party was legal, with the court claiming that the party was supposedly a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2022\/mar\/08\/german-court-rules-far-right-afd-party-a-suspected-threat-to-democracy\">threat<\/a> to democracy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe party stands for racism, the party stands for exclusion of minorities, the party stands for contempt of the social system,\u201d said\u00a0Thomas Haldenwang, the President of the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which ruled on the surveillance case.<\/p>\n<p>Haldenwang went on to say that his court\u2019s decision to allow state surveillance of a party representing a minority political view was a \u201cgood day for democracy\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Federal police in Germany have conducted mass raids across 13 states on Tuesday over online \u2018insults\u2019 levied against politicians. A large number of apartments and houses were raided in Germany<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":297,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1395951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1395951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/297"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1395951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1395951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1395951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1395951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1395951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}