At 6:00 local time on Wednesday morning, police in Germany began a massive operation to crack down on people posting hate speech on social media. Remix reported that the Federal Criminal Police Office seized smartphones, computers, and tablets during raids involving over 100 different cases. The raids were conducted under a Criminal Code Paragraph 188 and were designed to take down those engaging in racism or other forms of hate speech. The outlet noted:
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister, Herbert Reul (CDU), who has overseen a massive increase in crime in his state in recent years — including violent crimes and knife crimes committed by foreigners — celebrated the police raids.
“Digital arsonists must not be able to hide behind their cell phones or computers,” he said.
His state conducted 14 of the approximately 130 nationwide cases in a “day of action” against so-called hate postings.
Like other European countries, Germany has seen crime skyrocket in recent years, which many attribute to the large influx of immigrants. Remix states that even in the face of mounting crime, law enforcement has set its sights on people accused of hate speech, which has included complaints about the aforementioned crime rate and its relationship to immigration. People have even been targeted for calling politicians idiots or drunks.
These raids have become common occurrences. Remix said that while some far-left posters have been raided, the authorities have focused the majority of the attention on right-wing extremism. Last year, there was a raid on the home of a 14-year-old boy because he posted a hashtag on his TikTok account: “Everything for Germany.” That hashtag is apparently banned.
For his part, Reul maintains that there is a difference between opinion and hate speech, adding, “What you don’t do in the real world isn’t appropriate digitally either. It’s time for more attitude, both offline and online.”
To be completely candid, I do not know what was in the offenders' posts since I have neither the time nor the inclination to track down German social media posts. Usually, I can barely remember to post something on X myself. So who is the arbiter of what is an opinion versus what constitutes hate speech? According to Remix, the federal authorities work in tandem with left-leaning organizations, which flag posts and then forward them to the police. There were 10,732 reported cases last year.
The problem, of course, is that one person's opinion is another person's hate speech. Not only is there an issue of what may have been posted, but other criteria include who was affronted and who did the posting. This is not to say that some German residents never posted anything vile or that could incite violence; hey, we're talking about social media here.
However, the debate about free speech in the United States has consistently shown that people will use the claim that they feel unsafe to shut down any discussion they may not be winning, or to silence an opinion with which they disagree. And for years, the Left has enjoyed a particular kind of diplomatic immunity when it comes to being offended and, for that matter, airing its views, a courtesy that was not extended to those on the Right.
In the end, of course, "hate speech" will be whatever the people in power deem it to be, and eventually, there will be only "approved speech." And after that, why bother speaking at all? That may be the goal.
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