Around 23,000 reports to the "Hesse against hate speech" hotline

Hate and hate speech are part of everyday life on the internet. This is noticeable at the "Hesse against hate speech" reporting office. Many of the reports they receive are also a case for the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

, and Katherine Bradley

2023 December 27 . 6:23 AM

2 min read

Monitors with the inscription "Hessen gegen Hetze" stand next to each other at the official opening....aussiedlerbote.de — Monitors with the inscription "Hessen gegen Hetze" stand next to each other at the official opening of the central reporting office "Hessen 3C". Photo.aussiedlerbote.de

Extremism - Around 23,000 reports to the "Hesse against hate speech" hotline

Tens of thousands of reports of hate, hate speech and extremism on the internet were received by the"Hesse against hate speech" report office in 2023. According to the Ministry of the Interior in Wiesbaden, citizens contacted the report office with around 23,000 online reports by the beginning of December. Of these, around 2100 cases were sent to the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution for evaluation due to indications of extremism. The report office forwarded around 5,500 cases each to the public prosecutor's office in Frankfurt and the Federal Criminal Police Office due to possible criminal content.

Since January 2020, the "Hesse against hate speech" reporting office has offered those affected and witnesses a low-threshold way to report hate and hate speech with potentially criminal or extremist content to the security authorities. Previously, internet users had to contact the police directly.

"The number of reports has risen continuously since the reporting office was set up and has become increasingly well-known," the ministry said. Since the Hamas terror attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023, there has been a doubling of reports with anti-Semitic content or explicitly Israel-related anti-Semitism compared to previous months. Around 30 percent of the number of reports had a recognizable connection to the Middle East war.

"Events such as Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, which violates international law, or Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel have made it clear how important it is that criminal offenses and extremism are also consistently prosecuted on the Internet," said Interior Minister Peter Beuth (CDU).

For years, social media and messenger services have been obliged to systematically report criminal offenses and extremist content. "However, the platforms are successfully resisting this legally or are not cooperating, such as Telegram," criticized Beuth. The German government must work vigorously to ensure that existing law is implemented.