State Office of Criminal Investigation - Police take action against online hate speech: Searches
The Bavarian authorities have launched a search operation against suspected online agitators. According to the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (LKA), 25 properties in Bavaria were searched on Thursday. The focus was on Munich, where 12 properties were searched.
According to the information, the investigations are directed against 33 suspects: 27 men and six women aged between 17 and 65, who are said to have posted hateful comments on social media.
These were mainly comments in which immigrants were generally defamed as stabbers, rapists or murderers. A 39-year-old man is suspected of having condoned acts of violence against climate activists via Facebook comments in June 2022, according to the Lower Bavaria police headquarters.
According to the LKA, searches were carried out not only in Munich but also in the districts of Augsburg, Schweinfurt, Berchtesgadener Land, Fürstenfeldbruck, Freyung-Grafenau, Schwandorf, Oberallgäu, Donau-Ries, Rhön-Grabfeld and Kitzingen as well as in the cities of Regensburg, Amberg, Weiden, Kempten and Hof.
According to the police in Lower Bavaria, the searches were carried out in connection with a Europe-wide day of action against hate crime. Munich's Attorney General Reinhard Röttle called the fight against hate speech one of the "most challenging of our time".
The "Justice and media - consistently against hate" initiative, which has resulted in 831 investigations in the four years since its launch, is also dedicated to this. This was announced by Bavaria's Minister of Justice Georg Eisenreich (CSU) in Munich on Thursday.
The Ministry of Justice has been cooperating with the Bavarian Regulatory Authority for New Media (BLM) in the initiative since October 2019. Media professionals can report hate comments under articles on the internet to the judiciary in a simple online procedure.
According to Eisenreich, by the deadline of December 1, 2023, there had been 999 such requests for investigation, which led to 831 investigations, 209 lawsuits and 141 final convictions. These ranged from fines to suspended sentences of between three and eight months. Eisenreich called the project a success. It is to be extended for a further year.
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Source: www.stern.de
