What do you think of the German internet hatespeech laws that just went into effect?

[LilSaihah]

Seems like pissing past the post to me. You're already not allowed to explore certain ideas in the public space; what's a few more?

[Mormolyce]

No one should be surprised about Merkel doing this.

Yeah, I mean she is a right wing conservative after all.

- - - Updated - - -

LOL, is that Trump's sister? Looks exactly like him.

Not old or ugly enough. Also doesn't seem as pissy.

- - - Updated - - -

You seem very agitated. Are you okay? Don't worry, the left is trying to control speech and protect your feelings as fast as they can.

As I just said, it already is and has been for centuries. In fact I believe the US has literally never had unlimited freedom of speech, there have ALWAYS been exceptions to freedom of speech if it causes offence.

And I don't see you doing a damn thing about it. Did you just not know that was the case? Or are you a lightweight who likes jerking off on the internet but is unwilling to get off his ass and put any effort into ensuring that the free speech that's supposedly so valuable to him is actually protected?

Basically the only two possibilities here are ignorance or cowardice. Or I guess there's a third: you don't actually care about this principle at all and are completely full of shit.

[Austilias]

Germany is a parody of a country nowadays.

[Deleted]

They can always send the offenders to camp. Guess thats would be a good final solution.

[metzger84]

ah, germany and their censorship, now forcing their routine on the internet. go fuck yourself

[Acidbaron]

They weren't particularly modern - they applied only to religion. And just like now, those Nazis played the victim when prosecuted for them.

They also had laws against high treason - you know, things like staging a violent coup against the government at gunpoint and starting a shootout with the police that got 20 people killed. Hitler got 5 years for that. After which he got out and took over the government. I guess the Weimar Republic shouldn't have put him in prison for those crimes?

Oh wait, I just had a crazy idea, maybe instead they should've increased the penalties so that they DIDN'T get out of prison and pick up where they left off.



But what about their hate speech laws?

Oh wait. LOL.

To be fair, it took Hitler a long time after he left jail. He rose to power had to win several elections in a row because he mostly he would not be appointed chancellor i believe, so he kept destroying his competition, sometimes literally.

It is indeed amusing that people like him make claims about hate speech laws back then, the minority protection and hate speech laws were a result of hitler his actions not the other way around, but elim garak really does not do his user name honor. However plenty of people in this thread still don't get what this is about and shout censorship.

[Realitytrembles]

Anyone who is afraid of words is a moral and philosophical coward.

[Deleted]

I'm German and didn't know this was put in place. I was neither asked nor notified about it

[lonely zergling]

I'm German and didn't know this was put in place. I was neither asked nor notified about it

They voted for it the same day they voted for gay marriage. Media and public was distracted by the unimportant gay marriage law.

[Kiri]

Sometimes, I wonder if people just like getting mad at Germany. I mean, hate speech in Germany has been illegal for almost 60 years. This is not exactly something new. People keep saying 'first hateful speech, then any critical speech', but again, this has been in effect for decades and no such thing has happened. But for some reason, some posters here seem to think that a law created in order to curb Antisemitism somehow marks the rise of a new Nazism or something.

[lonely zergling]

Sometimes, I wonder if people just like getting mad at Germany. I mean, hate speech in Germany has been illegal for almost 60 years. This is not exactly something new. People keep saying 'first hateful speech, then any critical speech', but again, this has been in effect for decades and no such thing has happened. But for some reason, some posters here seem to think that a law created in order to curb Antisemitism somehow marks the rise of a new Nazism or something.

Exactly. It was illegal before. This new law only causes non illegal posts to get deleted by amateurs too (which is removing peoples freedom of speech). Thats the whole point of the protests duh.

Leftists and rightwing people are against this law - this should be enough to know about the law.

We already see innocent posts getting censored because of this law on facebook/twitter. This is almost on turkey level of oppression.

[Kiri]

Exactly. It was illegal before. This new law only causes non illegal posts to get deleted by amateurs too (which is removing peoples freedom of speech). Thats the whole point of the protests duh.

Leftists and rightwing people are against this law - this should be enough to know about the law.

I am not talking about that, though. I am talking about people who are against the censorship in general, not the implementation. You know, all those slippery slope people. Why do you think there is a whole discussion about Hitler's rise to power here?

What you speak of is a more complex problem, and it has very little to do with sending people to camps or whatever people bring up in order to talk bad about Germany here. It is the conundrum between 'ensuring no hate speech is on the internet' and 'ensuring no one's post gets falsely deleted'. Which one is more important? That is the discussion that could or should be had here. But is that really what this thread is about?

[metzger84]

Sometimes, I wonder if people just like getting mad at Germany. I mean, hate speech in Germany has been illegal for almost 60 years. This is not exactly something new. People keep saying 'first hateful speech, then any critical speech', but again, this has been in effect for decades and no such thing has happened. But for some reason, some posters here seem to think that a law created in order to curb Antisemitism somehow marks the rise of a new Nazism or something.

if germans are shitting themselves over "hate speech", they should ban youtube in their country, and not force their agenda on everyone else.

[lonely zergling]

I am not talking about that, though. I am talking about people who are against the censorship in general, not the implementation. You know, all those slippery slope people. Why do you think there is a whole discussion about Hitler's rise to power here?

What you speak of is a more complex problem, and it has very little to do with sending people to camps or whatever people bring up in order to talk bad about Germany here. It is the conundrum between 'ensuring no hate speech is on the internet' and 'ensuring no one's post gets falsely deleted'. Which one is more important? That is the discussion that could or should be had here. But is that really what this thread is about?

Well if you implement a mechanism that can be used (and is used) to censor non illegal opinions you really shouldnt wonder why people compare it to hitler times.

[Deleted]

It's aimed at American tech companies.

EU people hate American tech companies, well they hate America and American tech companies become targets.

Huge EU fines in the $billions will be levied against American tech companies.

First i was like:



Then i was like... maybe i should argue with this guy:



But in the end i was just like:



Infracted - spam

[Masoner]

The thought occurred to me that every time a state has started acting tyrannical, it was always done under the auspices of doing good.

Article on the new social media laws:
https://www.cnet.com/news/german-hat...fect-on-1-jan/





GDR propaganda (from August 1961) praising the Berlin Wall immediately after its construction, the Berlin Wall promised to stop the military threat of the 'fascists' backed by the United States

Cause Germany people have always elected authoritarian governments to tell them what to do, say and to think.

[Kiri]

Well if you implement a mechanism that can be used (and is used) to censor non illegal opinions you really shouldnt wonder why people compare it to hitler times.

The mechanism in question (reporting) has already been in place beforehand though. It is similar to the mechanism that is used in this very forum. If you post antisemitic hate speech here, you get banned and the worst parts will likely be edited out. The social media platforms in question already prohibit hate speech. Did you compare Facebook before this ruling to Hitler's times? No? Why not? The only thing that has changed is that companies are urged to enforce the rules they already have in place. Nothing else happened.

Of course, due to that increased pressure, it can lead to a 'when in doubt, delete' mentality. That is a problem that requires addressing. But nothing in the law itself encourages the silencing of simple opinions. It follows the definitions of hate speech already in place, which are relatively narrow. Opposing opinions can still always easily be expressed. There is no opinion that requires hate speech, or anything that could be considered hate speech, to be used in order to function.

[Deleted]

Germany and Sweden are the two countries I feel legit sorry for. Poor bastards.

[tankbug]

First you take away the freedom of those it's easy to disagree with.

And then everybody else's.

It doesn't have to go that way. There is no money in making it stricter in the future.

[Allybeboba]

Gotta love it!
Here in a America we have a state passing a “Free Speech” Law and in Europe they have a country passing laws banning speech.

Cheers