Nationwide police action against hate postings

In the fight against hate postings on the internet, the police searched 70 homes across Germany on Thursday and questioned a number of suspects. This was announced by the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA), which coordinated the day of action. In total, there were "130 measures against hate and agitation on the internet".

As on previous action days of this kind, more than half of the hate postings dealt with were attributed to the phenomenon of "politically motivated crime - right-wing", the BKA announced. A third of the cases were classified as "other". Some hate postings were based on foreign and religious ideology.

During the campaign, the police investigated postings with inciting content and propaganda offenses, such as the use of swastikas or other Nazi symbols. There were also anti-Semitic statements relating to the Middle East conflict, such as the slogan "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free". The criminal investigators also tracked postings in which politicians, public officials and elected representatives were threatened or insulted. In some cases, there were also concrete execution scenarios.

Significant increase in registered hate postings

According to the BKA, the number of cases of hate postings registered by the police rose from 3396 to 8011. The number of hate postings in the areas of politically motivated crime, foreign and religious ideology has quadrupled and tripled in the area of right-wing ideology.

The figures have also risen because the BKA's Central Reporting Office for Criminal Content on the Internet (ZMI BKA) continues to shed more and more light on the dark web, as the BKA puts it. Even before today's day of action, the ZMI BKA had again processed a significant proportion of hate postings and passed them on to the law enforcement authorities in the federal states.

In Germany, there are regular days of action to combat hate crime, for example on June 14 and December 15, 2023, to send a "clear signal against violence and the spread of extremist ideas". Offenders should be aware that they can expect to be prosecuted at any time. The first day of action against hate online took place on July 13, 2016.

(anw)