Pervasive Internet Troublemakers: Police Crackdown on Online Hate - "Anyone Could Be the Target"
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Online Hatred Crackdown by Police - 'Everyone Vulnerable' - Internet Hate Crimes: Everyone's Concern
The authorities have launched a widespread operation against suspected perpetrators of hate and incitement on the web. The Federal Criminal Police Office reported that law enforcement agencies across all 16 federal states executed approximately 65 search warrants and interrogated numerous suspects as part of this nationwide operation targeting online hate speech.
North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Herbert Reul (CDU) responded to a dpa inquiry stating: "Internet arsonists shouldn't think they can hide behind their phones and computers." Reul highlighted that in NRW, 14 of the 180 cases being investigated across Germany as part of the action day against online hate were happening within their jurisdiction.
Reul stated, "Many people have forgotten the difference between hate and opinion." He went on to say, "What you wouldn't do in the real world, you shouldn't do digitally. It's about standing up, both offline and online."
The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) predominantly attributes online incitement to the right-wing spectrum. The investigations mainly focus on extreme right-wing radical comments and criminal insults directed towards politicians. However, there are also cases related to other ideologies, such as left-wing, religious, or xenophobic ideologies, as well as instances without attribution.
The BKA outlined the most common offenses as incitement of the people, the use of symbols of unconstitutional and terrorist organizations, the rewarding and approval of crimes, and insults.
The number of incidents of hate speech has seen a sharp increase for several years, according to the BKA. From 2021 (2,411 cases) to 2024 (10,732 cases), the count of cases more than quadrupled, with the increase partly attributed to the "illumination of the dark field."
Numerous police authorities in NRW were involved in the operation, including officers from Bielefeld, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Gelsenkirchen, Hagen, Cologne, and Münster, who simultaneously conducted raids at 6:00 a.m. in NRW, with two search warrants to be executed, 14 suspects to be interrogated, and identification measures to be taken. There were no arrests in Düsseldorf, according to the Interior Ministry.
The suspected perpetrators primarily expressed themselves publicly on social media. One suspect was reported to have written on the X platform: "Heil Hitler!! Again. We are Germans and a successful nation. Male foreigners out."
Counseling centers for those affected called on social media platform providers to do more to combat hate speech. The Meldestelle Respect! commented that the platforms must urgently take on more responsibility and implement concrete security measures to effectively protect their users.
Hate Aid (Berlin), a non-profit organization, criticized that major platforms like X or Facebook still often ignore tips and reports. Its consultant Claudia Otte-Galle criticized that the cooperation readiness of the platforms is insufficient.
Digital violence, according to "Respect!", "pervades all parts of society." Young people and young adults are often confronted with hate and agitation online nearly every day. Unfortunately, many people feel "abandoned and powerless" when dealing with digital violence. Not only is the content digitally hurtful, but it often affects the real lives of those affected, emphasized the reporting center, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education. Otte-Galle of Hate Aid remarked: "It doesn't happen often, but it does happen that digital violence escalates into physical violence." The counseling center knows of serious cases where there has been lasting damage to reputation, depression, or anxiety disorders, and affected persons were forced to change their place of residence. At the same time, however, awareness of the problem has also grown.
The SPD opposition in NRW calls for more countermeasures, stating that the current approach to combat coarsening on the Internet is correct but that a single action day should not serve as an alibi. Given the growing amount of hate and slander spreading online, today's raids can only be the beginning, warned Christina Kampmann, the interior policy spokeswoman of the SPD faction in the North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament.
Kampmann demands a significant expansion of the fight against hate crimes beyond politically motivated crimes, viewing violence and insults against women in particular as a critical area for improvement.
- The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) investigations into online incitement often focus on hate speech found on social-media platforms, particularly those expressing extreme right-wing radical views.
- The counseling centers for those affected by hate speech urge social-media and entertainment platforms to take more responsibility and implement concrete security measures to effectively combat hate speech.
- Hate Aid, a non-profit organization, criticizes that major platforms like X or Facebook still often ignore tips and reports of digital violence, which pervades all parts of society, including politics, entertainment, and general-news.
