Consequential Like: Online terror advocates should face deportation
Foreigners should be able to be deported if they approve of even a single terrorist act. There is a dispute as to whether a like could be sufficient.
(Image: Maksim Kabakou/Shutterstock.com)
The German government has launched a legislative initiative to amend the Residence Act. The aim is to make it easier to expel and subsequently deport foreigners who condone, welcome or glorify terrorist crimes. A criminal conviction is not required for this. In such cases, a "particularly serious interest in deportation" should apply, as is currently the case in the areas of smuggling and narcotics crime.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) has deliberately set the threshold for the new clauses to apply at a low level. According to the ministry, condoning or promoting "a single terrorist offense" is sufficient. Previously, it was necessary to advocate several such crimes. From now on, according to the BMI, "even a single comment that glorifies and condones a terrorist crime on social media can justify a serious interest in deportation".
The government wants to replace the term "terrorist writings" in the German Criminal Code (StGB) with "content". According to Section 11 of the Criminal Code, this refers to content on audio or video media, in data storage devices, images or other embodiments, among other things. The explanatory memorandum goes on to say: "The distribution of content can therefore now also include the marking of a post by 'liking' it on social media such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc." She refers to a controversial decision by the Meiningen Regional Court in 2022 (Ref.: 6 Qs 146/22).
Lawyers and the left: worrying development
This Like declaration in particular raises serious concerns. "The fact that even a thoughtlessly distributed emoji should lead to deportation is not proportionate," criticizes Gisela Seidler, Chairwoman of the Migration Law Committee of the German Bar Association (DAV). It is hardly comprehensible that even a like on Instagram or Facebook should constitute the dissemination of terrorist content. "The assessment of what counts as 'advocating terrorism' cannot be left to the immigration authorities," emphasizes Seidler. This must be left to the criminal courts, as it is also a question of the limits of freedom of expression. In the event of a conviction, deportation is already possible.
Clara Bünger, legal expert for the Left Party in the Bundestag, spoke of the "preliminary climax of a worrying development". When it comes to authoritarian states such as Turkey or Russia, German politicians are rightly outraged that people there can be persecuted or even imprisoned because of a like on social media. However, Germany itself has long been moving in this direction. However, deportations do not solve social problems.
The BMI cannot understand the uproar. "An expulsion is a serious constitutional decision by the local immigration authorities, against which there is legal protection before the administrative courts," a spokesperson for the ministry told heise online. The justification for the proposal cites a regional court decision in criminal proceedings. However, this "does not make any statement on the question of expulsions", but "on the dissemination of content in the criminal sense". Criminal proceedings before ordinary courts are different from administrative court proceedings on possible expulsions. In this respect, it will depend on the case law of the administrative courts.
BMI: Like cannot justify expulsion
"From the BMI's point of view, a 'like' cannot justify a decision as serious as an expulsion", the spokesperson emphasized. "This is because in each individual case, the immigration authority and, if necessary, the administrative courts must weigh up the interests of staying and deportation". "Serious reasons are therefore necessary". Expulsions should be possible above all in serious cases such as videos glorifying terrorism and hate comments that welcome acts and could encourage further acts. When asked by heise online whether a data protection impact assessment had been carried out and how it would be ensured that the project could be implemented in compliance with data protection regulations, the BMI did not respond.
Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) initially emphasized: "We are taking tough action against Islamist and anti-Semitic hate crimes online. In Germany, too, Hamas' terrorist attacks on Israel were celebrated in the most disgusting way on social media. Just as inhumane is the way in which the terrible Islamist knife attack in Mannheim, in which the young police officer Rouven Laur was killed, was glorified online." It is good that many police investigations are underway.
The initiative is in the form of a so-called formulation aid. These are usually corrections to an ongoing legislative proposal that have already been agreed with the government parliamentary groups and can then be adopted quickly. There is no need for a hearing or 1st reading. Specifically, the controversial articles are to be added to the draft law "to strengthen early public participation in planning and approval procedures". The coalition of the traffic light coalition was predominantly in favor of the cabinet's decision.
(mki)
