Middle East conflict: media watchdogs observe hate wave online
Media watchdogs are observing a wave of hatred and incitement online following the Hamas attack on Israel. "What we have been experiencing here since the Hamas attack is extreme," reported Tobias Schmid, Director of the Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, in Düsseldorf on Thursday evening. 570 potentially punishable cases were identified in Germany in four weeks with the help of artificial intelligence and reported to the EU Commission.
Since the AI software Kivi was introduced two years ago, the program has already detected over 40,000 potential legal violations on the Internet. The AI can evaluate more than 10,000 posts per day and suggest them to lawyers for further examination. The cases are forwarded to the Federal Criminal Police Office via a digital interface and investigative proceedings are initiated in around half of the cases.
"The BKA has made more than 200 officers available for this area," said Schmid. Within 14 days, the perpetrator is identified and prosecution is initiated.
NRW is at the forefront when it comes to prosecuting hatred and hate speech, said NRW Media Minister Nathanael Liminski (CDU). "It is important that we are effective here so that those who spread their garbage there realize that their feet are being stepped on." With regard to the Russian platform VK, Liminski said that "we are dealing with almost unregulated muckrakers".
According to experts from the state media authority, the postings are primarily anti-Semitic, but also anti-Muslim content. Hate speech, violations of human dignity and disinformation are recorded and reported to the EU Commission. At the same time, the social media platforms would be asked to delete the illegal content.
While most potentially criminal content has so far been discovered on VK and Telegram, the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has been catching up recently, reported Laura Braam, head of the supervisory team.
The State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia coordinates the monitoring nationwide for the 14 state media authorities and Europe-wide for the EU Commission.
The heightened online hatred and incitement towards both Jewish and Muslim communities, as observed by media watchdogs, is also being spread through platforms like X, which has seen an increase in potentially criminal content. The internet, in light of this crime wave, requires more vigilance and collaboration between law enforcement agencies and social media platforms to delete and prevent the spread of such illegal content.
Source: www.dpa.com
