Vice President J.D. Vance on Monday called Germany’s free speech restrictions “Orwellian” and said that other European countries should join the U.S. in rejecting such laws.
Mr. Vance criticized German officials who appeared on CBS’s “60 Minutes” who described their country’s move toward criminalizing speech.
“Insulting someone is not a crime, and criminalizing speech is going to put real strain on European-U.S. relationships,” Mr. Vance wrote on social media above a clip from the news show. “This is Orwellian, and everyone in Europe and the U.S. must reject this lunacy.”
On Friday, Mr. Vance rattled European leaders when he rebuked them in a speech at the Munich Security Conference, saying they allowed unchecked migration and failed to uphold free speech principles and democratic values.
On “60 Minutes,” German prosecutors Svenja Meininghaus, Matthäus Fink and Frank-Michael Laue discussed their country’s new speech laws, which are found within its criminal statutes.
All three confirmed that insulting someone in public and online is a crime in Germany.
“The fine could be even higher if you insult someone on the internet,” said Mr. Fink. “Because with the internet, it stays there. If we are talking here face to face and you insult me and I insult you — OK, finished. But if you are on the internet and I insult you or a politician, [it’s there forever].”
The punishments for breaking Germany’s speech laws include prison time for repeat offenders.
The prosecutors explained that German law prohibits malicious gossip, violent threats and fake quotes.
They said that anyone who reposts a post that is not true is committing a crime.
“In the case of reposting, it is a crime as well, because the reader cannot distinguish whether you invented this or reposted it. That’s the same for us,” Ms. Meininghaus said.
Mr. Vance and Trump administration officials have aggressively leaned into the free speech issue since the Munich speech.
On Sunday, the vice president tore into CBS News’ Margaret Brennan for a “crazy exchange” she had with Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“Does the media really think the holocaust was caused by free speech?” Mr. Vance asked.
In an earlier interview, Ms. Brennan pressed Mr. Rubio about Mr. Vance’s Munich speech and his meeting with the leader of the right-wing Alternative for Germany party.
“Well,” Ms. Brennen said, “he was standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct genocide, and he met with the head of a political party that has far-right views and some historic ties to extreme groups,” Brennan said. “The context of that was changing the tone of it. And you know that.”
Mr. Rubio responded: “Well, I have to disagree with you. Free speech was not used to conduct a genocide. The genocide was conducted by an authoritarian Nazi regime that happened to also be genocidal because they hated Jews and they hated minorities.”
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.