[Bunny_]

German Censorship - NetzDG - Evil Chaos caused by good will?
________________________________________________


A new law has come with the start of the year 2018, atleast in Germany. The NetzDG - Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz - Network Enforcement Law to translate it - already decided upon last year is now officialy active. (01.01.2018) This law forces all operators of "Telemediendiensteanbieter, die mit Gewinnerzielungsabsicht Plattformen im Internet betreiben" [NetzDG: §1 Abs. 1] - in other words, telemediaproviders, that engange to make a profit by operating their websites, in our case especially webpages like Facebook, Twitter and so on to check reported content witihin 24 hours and than decide whever to lock it (or remove it for german IP adresses), or to keep it on their site.

What content is affected?

Only the paragraphs §§ 86, 86a, 89a, 91, 100a, 111, 126, 129 bis 129b, 130, 131, 140, 166, 184b i.V.m 184d, 185 bis 187, 201a, 241 or 269 are included in the NetzDG. I've picked the most interesting ones:

§§ 86, 86a StGB: Use or publish propaganda mediums of forbidden or former nationalsocialistic parties.
§ 89a StGB: Basically asking others to join in into a terroristic act.
§ 111 StGB: Asking others publicly to commit crimes.
§ 129 - 129b StGB: Creating criminal or terroristic organisations.
§130 StGB: Rabble-Rousing.

Whats the problem with that?

The decicion whever one of those laws is affected doesnt lay in the hand of a judge, or even in those of a lawyer - but in the hands of simple support employees of those companies. This leads to both alot of misunderstandings and wrongfull deletion. Due to the forced timeline, and the huge amount of reports, most of the companies, especially Twitter that seems to be completely overwhelmed, decides to delete everything - just in case.

This also leads those companies to sometimes report those who posted "unlawful" content to the police, forcing the justice to interfere.

Instrumentalization

Some of the leading right wing party members have already started to instrumentalize this law by getting their content posted intentionally deleted, to than later reupload a screenshot of their posted content, complaining about german censorship.

Especially when the companies reports those to the judical system, big newspapers pick up the topic, giving them even more publicity.

What happens if companies disobey?

Users that feel that their content has not been reviewed can report those companies. Huge money fines can be imposed.