German police raid homes of 17 people accused of posting antisemitic hate speech on social media

Lee Duna@lemmy.nz to World News@lemmy.world – 267 points –
German police raid homes of 17 people accused of posting antisemitic hate speech on social media
apnews.com
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Good, arrest them all. It’s absolutely horrendous that people use the tragedy of the Palestinian people to be antisemitic.

You'll be arrested next, when it turns out the people arrested were jewish so your comment counts as anti-semitism.

You have clearly no Idea what is going on.

First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists And I did not speak out Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me

First they came for the Communists And I did not speak out Because I was not a Communist

"they" in this poem is referring to anti-semites, specifically Nazis. Germany is doing the right thing by censoring and excluding anti-semites from society, to ensure that what this poem describes will never happen again.

Using Niemoller to support antisemitism is peak 2016 "triggered, lib?" bullshit. Fuck off with that. The intolerant don't deserve tolerance. If you try to deny someone their humanity, yours is forfeit.

Are you drunk? You are now at the Point of negative knowledge about what's going on! You are defending People who discriminate and harm others.

You can defend someone and hate them symultaniously its not mutualy exclusive. Ohh shit did i just say i hated nazis is that hate speach am i going to be arrested? Or is it ok to practice hate speach against nazis cos that sounds a lot like discrimination to me.

I have zero idea what your angle is, but for the benefit of others...

Nazi-ism is a chosen belief system with a core belief in depriving other groups of basic human rights. The depriving other people of basic human rights is the key part.

Hate speech is directed towards people with attributes that they cannot change or religion. Religion gets added in there because changing religion is not a simple thing, and in major religions doesn't hurt people. (Don't start citing religious terrorists - that is fundamentalism within a religion and not a commonly shared belief among all followers.

So hating on nazis is cool.

Yes it is okay to hate and arrest Nazis.

And you know what? Ther German Law agrees with me so get bent and suck a Lemon.

Does that mean no one should be prosecuted for their actions?

First they came for the antisemites and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't one of them... /s

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This made me think because raiding peoples homes doesn't seem right, but saying things like this definitely isn't right.

In the end I think a inclusive society should exclude it's exclusive elements.

I feel we just can't agree on this argument online, and it's likely because the line for tolerance differs on so many factors, history being a huge one.

I'm aware German laws exist to ban fascist symbols, likely as an ounce of prevention along the lines, "we won't repeat another Hitler".

It might take the US falling into a fascist state and being liberated to make us adopt such "drastic" measures as raids. Until then 1A has been routinely held up to protect hate speech so for now it's up to us as a society to make a conscious decision what we'll tolerate. We just have to be as vocal about it as the racists/fascists.

The raids were probably because of the threats and not because of antisemitic remarks. The first might get you arrested if you scream it in the streets, but threatening people should get you raided imho

That makes us no better than them tho.

No, it's a 'paradox of tolerance' and that paradox is already solved

That's what those fuckers want you to think.

So its ok when we silence a group of people for their beliefs but not when they do it?

If you want a tolerant society, you cannot tolerate the intolerant.

If you want democracy, you must suppress anti-democratic ideas.

You have to fight for want you believe in, and not let antithetical ideas fester and subvert yours, just because they exploit your tolerance and use the space you give them to fight it.

Sure, but your methodology for determining what is an anti-democratic idea should be really tight, before you raid/arrest people.

No one wants murders in their society, but showing that they did that action is more important than stating that an action is wrong/anti-democratic/immoral etc.

How do you suppose they should have proceeded instead?

In this case if they have evidence, they should be investigated as is being done.

My critique is on the general sense of tolerance/intolerance as that can be vague, although unjustified incitement of violence or violent action is a good place to draw a line. However what is a call to violence can be tricky to parse sometimes.

If you want a tolerant society, you cannot tolerate the intolerant

That doesn’t mean silencing anyone who utters “wrongspeak,” but authoritarians like you are pushing precisely that. “We shall decide who the intolerant are and they shall be banned from our tolerant society.” I would much rather live in a world where I had to listen to ignorant views like yours than be “protected” from them but never forced to figure out for myself why I disagree. Bigotry flourishes in darkness; the solution is to bring it out into the light.

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When those beliefs involve the eradication of anyone who isn't exactly like you, yes.

So we should silence all the religouse fundamentalists as well?

If they call for genocide? Yes, of course.

What makes you think society should just sit idly by and do nothing when people call for mass murder and genocide?

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Imagine your dumb fuck of a child sending antisemitic hate shit through his phone and a few days later the police raids your home and takes all your devices. Absolute nightmare.

All of the suspects were apparently over 18.

Yeah sure mate, i bet everyone you know moved out of their parents home by 18?

The implication made was that these were children being arrested for hate speech. I clarified that they're adult children at the very least. You seethed.

read the goddamn article before posting hyperbolic and false statements like the one you posted here. None of these people are minors, but they are all advocating for the extermination of an entire race.

There's some pretty questionable comment removals here. What exactly triggered Rule 4 in that comment by /u/Marsupial@quokk.au, anonymous mod?

Whata been getting removed?

I don't know how to link a specific item in the modlog, and I assume reposting removed content is inherently rulebreaking. Someone was objecting to the quote lumping in leftists criticizing Israel with far right antisemites and Islamist fanatics. The only remotely, squint really hard, maybe it could be construed as in the vaguest vicinity of Rule 4 was saying "fuck Germany" in response, which just isn't racism or prejudice. So other than that, it sure appears to be a mod removing a post because they don't like the argument being made.

I found some of the comments u where talking about since they where direct replies to me. Mr moderator please dont delete peoples angry responces to me they should have the same right to disagree with me if thry want.

This is the best summary I could come up with:


BERLIN (AP) — German authorities on Tuesday raided the homes of 17 people in the state of Bavaria accused of spreading antisemitic hate speech and threats targeting Jews online.

According to the Bavarian criminal police, the suspects were 15 men and two women aged between 18 and 62, German news agency dpa reported.

The suspects were said to have celebrated the attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7, and were accused of spreading hate speech against Jewish people on social media, using symbols of banned terrorist organizations, dpa reported.

Further searches were carried out in the Bavarian towns of Fuessen and Kaufbeuren as well as in the counties of Passau, Fuerstenfeldbruck, Berchtesgadener Land, Coburg, Aschaffenburg and Hassberge.

“Unfortunately, antisemitism has an impact on the daily life of many Jews in Germany,” Michael Weinzierl, the Bavarian police commissioner against hate crime, told dpa.

For too long, we have allowed a ntisemitism to penetrate into the heart of our society via extreme right-wing circles, radical left-wing demonization of Israel or Islamist fanatics.”


The original article contains 487 words, the summary contains 174 words. Saved 64%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Someone should remind the German police that if they're busting on antisemitic hate speech online, they've got a great big backlog of people posting that stuff on Xitter and there's that one billionaire that bought it recently that's a prominent participant in that stuff

Were those "free palestine" arrests or legit antisemitism?

You decide:

One suspect allegedly sent a sticker in a WhatsApp school class chat with the words “Gas the Jews.” Another person, a German-Turkish dual citizen, allegedly posted on his account that “the Jewish sons” deserved nothing more than to be “exterminated,” dpa reported.

and from a German source:

A German-Turkish defendant is said to have posted on his account that "the Jewish sons" deserved nothing more than to be slaughtered "and exterminated".

and

According to the LKA, a Turkish citizen posted a picture of Hitler shortly after October 7, adding: "I could kill all the Jews, but I left some alive to show you why I killed them." Next to it, he posted a Palestinian flag, the caption "Free Palestine" and an emoji with a victory sign.

oh, if only OP had included a link to the article!!!

Read the damn thing for yourself, it isn't long at all.

And this is an example of why speech should not be criminalized, even hate speech, unfortunately. Perceptions of what counts as hate speech are subject to change with geopolitical issues that may or may not actually make said speech "hate speech." Today the nazis are antisemites, tomorrow any critic of Isreal's reaction to Hamas' terrorism in Oct is too. You don't have to like what they (hypothetical people) say but freedom of speech is important, short of actual calls to (violent) action themselves words should not be punishable by legal action. Fight them with your words, show others your way is better, but remember what you do to others can easily be turned back on you in short order.

in the example you mention, one thing is antisemitism, the other is not

the fact they are saying it is doesnt make it so

While true, if people are getting locked up for what you and I agree is not, there is functionally no difference between "is and gets locked up" and "isn't but still gets locked up." See what I mean? Saying is one thing, legal action is another. If one can limit speech, "one" being the ruling class/party, then anything they decide to limit can therefore be legally limited and they can turn it like the above article. If the ruling class is instead limited themselves in their abilty to limit speech, yes nazis can say "jews bad because nonsense," and that sucks, but then you can also say "israel bad because genocide," even if the ruling class does not want you to.

Case in point, has anyone been arrested for this in America yet? Not that I'm aware of. And that isn't a bad thing.

yes because it is being used as a tool by a totalitarian government, totalitarian governments would do that regardless of how anyone feels about free speech.

does not mean letting nazis and other criminal scum roam around is a good idea in a free country.

Right, which is bad, and should be called out, which is exactly what I'm doing, which you then come to defend. Face it, the fact that they are a totalitarian (your word) government jailing people for speech is made possible by the fact that they do not have freedom of speech, this is all my exact point.

So whats your point? Governments should not be totalitarian? I mean yeah...

Basically yes. I see people who want it too often.

I see plenty of fascists who want it, thats not justification to let them.

Well, yeah, those are some of the people who want a totalitarian state who would seek to limit speech.

Being against antisemitism laws

Nazis 🤝 Palestine supporters

Well what is considered antisemitism under the law? Is saying death to Jews or is it questioning the murder of civilians and bombing of refugee camps?

I think it's this

Volksverhetzung, in English "incitement to hatred" (used also in the official English translation of the German Criminal Code),[1][2] "incitement of popular hatred", "incitement of the masses", or "instigation of the people", is a concept in German criminal law that refers to incitement to hatred against segments of the population and refers to calls for violent or arbitrary measures against them, including assaults against the human dignity of others by insulting, maliciously maligning, or defaming segments of the population.

I think being anti-Israeli actions is enough but being anti-Jewish would be. And "death to Jews" definitely counts

During an April 2023 pro-Palestine protest, observers recorded numerous antisemitic chants, including "Death to the Jews".[25][26] The Berlin Police have confirmed they are investigating charges of Volksverhetzung;[25] two pro-Palestine demonstrations planned for the following weekend were cancelled

From the article you're commenting on:

The suspects were said to have celebrated the attacks by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on Oct. 7, and were accused of spreading hate speech against Jewish people on social media, using symbols of banned terrorist organizations, dpa reported.

and

One suspect allegedly sent a sticker in a WhatsApp school class chat with the words “Gas the Jews.” Another person, a German-Turkish dual citizen, allegedly posted on his account that “the Jewish sons” deserved nothing more than to be “exterminated,” dpa reported.

So probably more the category "celebrating antisemitic terrorism" and "calling for the extermination of all Jews."

Good. Get them all. Damn fascists. They act now as if they support palestine but beware if anyone of them comes near them, then they are "knife wielding Madman".....

"Accused" So they had no idea whether or not these people posted such shit. Nice. So if you're in germany and you know the address of someone you dont like, just accuse them of hate speech and they will have their door kicked down. Nice job germany.

Dude. In Germany you are accused till you are sentenced or cleared. And before you can sentence someone you need to bring him court

you dont know what accused means

It's a mistranslation, I guess. In Germany, "beschuldigt" means charged for a crime, but the literal translation is accused.

No that's angeschuldigt, indicted. Beschuldigt means that there's official investigations and you're a subject, before and after the state attorney files charges with a court. Once court proceedings have started you're both beschuldigt and angeschuldigt.

Dunno if there's an equivalent term in English, aside from that caveat accused is a properly proper translation.

Do you know what the word for "accused" is in German?

They're trying their best to speak to you in your language because it's the only one you know.

Cut them some slack.

I dont think anyone shpuld be arrested for speach. But i can understand germanys reasons to do such things

Did you miss the "threats targeting Jews" part?

Threatening someone's life isn't protected by free speech.

Did it say exacrly what was said?

They had a warrant from a judge for threats. A judge determined that it was a threat. Threatening someone is illegal.

Nobody was arrested, they were questioned and police took the computers as evidence.

Edit: Nice edit

So thats a no. Im in no way defending them just that untill ive seen these threats im hestant to condem them.

No, you said this:

I dont think anyone shpuld be arrested for speach. But i can understand germanys reasons to do such things

completely ignoring the article because you've already made up your mind the second you read "speech", suggesting Germany would arrest people for some harmless stuff.

Are you in favour of not getting investigated after you've threatened someone?

I still havnt seen these threats. And germany arrested 6million people for some harmless stuff so wouldnt put it past them.

You're making a fool of yourself just because you would never admit to a mistake.

This got to be the most stupid comment I've read the entire year.

What mistake?

The mistake of only reading the headline and also misinterpreting it completely, making assumptions in your extremist worldview.

Ok can you pleasd try being a little less hostile so we can have a productive discussion. Difference in interpretation is called an opinion we are all entitled to one. I didnt just read the headline. And thinking that we shouldnt arrest people based on speach is an extremist world view didnt knwo that.

From my interpretation they celebrated a terrorist attack. Wrong yes, moraly corrupt yes, should it be illegal no. If u think celebrating a terrorist attack should be illegal then then the very top of the arrest list would be the US government. And hate speach which nobody can actualy provide to me so god knows what they actualy said.

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