Social media networks will be required to report cases of hate speech to German investigators if the bill is passed. Cases of hate speech in Germany have risen, and legislators aim to snuff out extremism at its source.
Hass, the German for 'hate,' on the internetImage: picture-alliance/dpa/L. Schulze
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The German government on Wednesday approved a bill that aims to crack down on hate speech on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter.
If the bill is signed into law, social media networks would have to report online hate crimes to Germany's Federal Criminal Police (BKA). Such hate speech posts include far-right propaganda, graphic portrayals of violence, murder or rape threats, posts indicating that someone is preparing a terrorist attack or distributions of child sex abuse images. The networks are already required to delete such posts from their platforms.
The bill also expands the definition of criminal hate speech to include threats of rape or property damage, as well as expressions of approval for serious crimes. Additionally, crimes motivated by anti-Semitism would result in higher sentences.
The measures await the approval of the Bundestag, Germany's lower house, and the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament.
'Dry up the breeding ground'
Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht said the new legislation shows how suspected extremists join forces and arm themselves to attack people and democracy.
"We must dry up the breeding ground where this extremism flourishes," Lambrecht said. She added that hate speech often affects Jews, Muslims, refugees and women, and can lead to repulsive threats of rape.
"Racism and misogyny are often close to each other when it comes to instigators," she said.
In 2018, politically motivated crime increased by nearly 20%, according to figures from Germany's Interior Ministry. Most such hate crimes, particularly ones with anti-Semitic and xenophobic motivations, were committed by right-wing extremists.
In October 2019, a gunman tried to enter a synagogue in the eastern German city of Halle during the Jewish Yom Kippur holiday. He killed two people nearby and injured two others near a Kebab shop. He streamed the entire attack on Twitch, an Amazon streaming service for video gamers, during which he made misogynist and xenophobic statements.
The attempted attack on a synagogue in Halle is not the first in recent years. Even after the horrors of the Nazi era, anti-Semitic incidents occur in Germany — on individuals, memorials and Jewish places of worship.
Image: Imago Images/S. Schellhorn
Cologne, 1959: Swastikas and hate speech
In December 1959, two members of the Deutsche Reichspartei (DRP) right-wing extremist party painted swastikas and the words "Germans demand: Jews out" on the synagogue in Cologne. Anti-Semitic graffiti emerged across the country. The perpetrators were convicted, and the Bundestag passed a law against "incitement of the people," which remains on the books to this day.
Image: picture-alliance/Arco Images/Joko
Lübeck, 1994: First arson attack on a temple in decades
People across the world were horrified at the March 1994 attack on the synagogue in the northern city of Lübeck. For the first time in decades, a synagogue in Germany burned. Four right-wing extremists were eventually convicted of arson. The day after the fire, 4,000 locals took to the streets under the slogan "Lübeck holds its breath." In 1995, the same synagogue was hit by another arson attack.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Büttner
Essen, 2000: Stones hurled into Old Synagogue
Armed with paving stones, more than 100 Palestinians from Lebanon attacked the Old Synagogue in Essen in October 2000. The incident occurred after a demonstration against "violence in the Middle East." A police officer was injured. Mahmud Alaeddin, deputy head of the general delegation of Palestine in Germany, distanced himself from the attack.
Image: picture-alliance/B. Boensch
Düsseldorf, 2000: Arson and stones
A 19-year-old Palestinian and a 20-year-old Moroccan damaged Düsseldorf's New Synagogue with incendiary devices and rocks in October 2000 as "revenge" against Jews and the state of Israel. "We need the respectable people to rebel" against anti-Semitism, then-German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder demanded. The federal and state governments and various NGOs launched campaigns to counter extremism.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Weihrauch
Mainz, 2010: Molotov cocktail attack shortly after inauguration
Shortly after being inaugurated in September 2010, an arson attack hit the New Synagogue in Mainz during the night of October 30. The spectacular Deconstructivist building by architect Manuel Herz was erected on the site of the former main synagogue that was set on fire during the Kristallnacht, the Nazis' national night of pogroms, in 1938.
Image: picture-alliance/akg/Bildarchiv Steffens
Wuppertal, 2014: Incendiary devices
In July 2014, three young Palestinians hurled incendiary devices at the front door of the synagogue in Wuppertal. In a highly controversial decision, the court ruled there was "no evidence whatsoever" of anti-Semitic motives. Jews in Germany and the foreign media were outraged. The chairman of the Jewish Community Wuppertal declared the ruling as "an invitation to further crimes."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Seidel
Berlin, 2019: Knife-wielding attacker
A man wielding a knife climbed over a barrier at Berlin's New Synagogue on the eve of Shabbat on October 4, 2019, during the holy period between the holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Security personnel overwhelmed the attacker, whose motive remained unclear. Police released him afterwards, a decision Jewish leaders called "a failure" of justice.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Avers
Halle, 2019: Shooter attempts mass murder on Yom Kippur
About 80 people were in the synagogue on Wednesday afternoon to observe Yom Kippur, the Jewish calendar's holiest day. The alleged attacker reportedly attempted to shoot his way into the synagogue but was prevented by a safety door. Two passersby were shot to death and two were injured. The suspect, who has a history of right-wing extremist, anti-Semitic, and misogynist rhetoric, was detained.
