Germany: Return Of The Stasi Police State?

Authored by Judith Bergman via The Gatestone Institute,

  • Germany's new law requires social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to censor their users on behalf of the government. Social media companies are obliged to delete or block any online "criminal offenses" within 24 hours of receipt of a user complaint -- regardless of whether the content is accurate or not.
  • Social media platforms now have the power to shape the form of current political and cultural discourse by deciding who will speak and what they will say.
  • Notice the ease with which the police chief mentioned that he had filed charges to silence a leading political opponent of the government. That is what authorities do in police states: Through censorship and criminal charges, they silence outspoken critics and political opponents of government policies, such as Beatrix von Storch, who has sharply criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel's migration policies.
  • While such policies would doubtless have earned the German authorities many points with the old Stasi regime of East Germany, they more than likely contravene the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) to which Germany is a party, as well as the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.

Germany's new censorship law, which has introduced state censorship on social media platforms, came into effect on October 1, 2017. The new law requires social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, to censor their users on behalf of the German state. Social media companies are obliged to delete or block any online "criminal offenses" such as libel, slander, defamation or incitement, within 24 hours of receipt of a user complaint -- regardless of whether the content is accurate or not. Social media companies are permitted seven days for more complicated cases. If they fail to do so, the German government can fine them up to 50 million euros for failing to comply with the law.

The new censorship law, however, was not fully enforced until January 1, 2018, in order to give the social media platforms time to prepare for their new role as the privatized thought police of the German state. Social media platforms now have the power to shape the form of current political and cultural discourse by deciding who will speak and what they will say.

On January 1, 2018, however, the law was immediately enforced. Twitter began by suspending the account of the deputy leader of the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), Beatrix von Storch, for 12 hours, after she tweeted the following in response to a New Year's greeting issued in Arabic by the Cologne Police:

"What the hell is happening in this country? Why is an official police site tweeting in Arabic? Do you think it is to appease the barbaric, gang-raping hordes of Muslim men?"

(During New Year's Eve of 2015/16, over 1,000 mainly Muslim men sexually assaulted around 1,200 women in Cologne.)

Von Storch also had her Facebook account suspended for repeating her tweet there. Facebook told her that her post contravened German law, as it constituted "incitement to hatred".

It did not stop there. Cologne police filed charges against von Storch for "incitement to hatred", which is punishable under section 130 of the German Criminal Code. According to the Cologne police chief, Uwe Jacob, multilingual tweets at major events are an important part of the police's communication strategy:

"The campaign was really well received by most people – however, some were bothered by the fact that we tweeted in Arabic and Farsi – they were very prominent right-wingers, who then felt that they had to make tweets that incited to hatred. We simply filed charges".

Notice the ease with which the police chief mentioned that he had filed charges to silence a leading political opponent of the government. That is what authorities do in police states: Through censorship and criminal charges, they silence outspoken critics and political opponents of government policies, such as von Storch, who has sharply criticized Chancellor Angela Merkel's migration policies.

While such policies would doubtless have earned the German authorities many points with the old Stasi regime of East Germany, they more than likely contravene the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR) to which Germany is a party, as well as the case law of the European Court of Human Rights. Article 10 of the European Convention of Human Rights states:

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers...

2. The exercise of these freedoms... may be subject to such... restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.

In its case law, the European Court of Human Rights has stated that Article 10

"...protects not only the information or ideas that are regarded as inoffensive but also those that offend, shock or disturb; such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broad-mindedness without which there is no democratic society. Opinions expressed in strong or exaggerated language are also protected".

Even more important in the context of charges against politicians is the fact that according to the European Court of Human Rights' case law:

"...the extent of protection depends on the context and the aim of the criticism. In matters of public controversy or public interest, during political debate, in electoral campaigns... strong words and harsh criticism may be expected and will be tolerated to a greater degree by the Court".

When leading politicians are criminally charged for questioning the actions of the authorities, such as in this case the actions of the police, we are no longer dealing with a democracy, but with a regular police state.

Several other accounts on Twitter and Facebook were also suspended under the new censorship law in the first days and weeks of January. One such Twitter account was the satirical magazine, Titanic, which was blocked for parodying von Storch's tweet about the "barbaric hordes" of Muslim men. The privatized Twitter thought police, in their eagerness to censor, had overlooked that Titanic was just poking fun. The suspension of the Titanic account alerted some politicians -- a mere three months after the law went into force -- to the problematic nature of the law. Leader of the Green party, Simone Peter and Secretary-General of the FDP, Nicola Beer were both critical of the law. "The law is messed up and must be replaced by a decent one", Beer said.

Another politician, Martin Sichert, AfD member of the Bundestag for Nürnberg and state Chairman for the AfD, had a Facebook post deleted for violating "community standards". In the post, which he substantiated with links to factual sources, he drew attention, among other things, to the way women are treated in Afghanistan. He also drew attention to the sexual abuse of small children in Afghanistan:

"It is scary and at the same time shameful that our state is preventing the enlightenment of citizens by simply censoring factual opinions, publicly available citations and links to reputable sources."

Sichert and von Storch are just the most famous people to have their speech shut down on social media. There are countless others, whose stories never reach the media.

Under the censorship law, anyone can ask a social network operator to delete postings, even if the post does not affect him personally in any way. If the social network provider does not respond within 24 hours, the person wishing to have a post deleted can involve the Federal Office of Justice; there is even a form for this purpose on the homepage of the Federal Office of Justice. This office is responsible for the prosecution of violations, and the district court of Bonn is the sole authority permitted to examine disputes about the criminal liability of comments made on social media and to impose fines on the social media companies for failing to delete those comments within the required 24 hours.

It is regrettable that Germany, which can barely keep up with the terrorism threat and the wave of violent crime, is spending such vast resources on shutting down the free speech of its citizens on social media. The Federal Department of Justice has rented additional offices in Bonn to house approximately 50 new lawyers and administrators to implement the new law and ensure that the social media providers delete "offending posts" within 24 hours. "It was also important that we created a new file management system," explains Thomas W. Ottersbach of the Federal Office of Justice in Bonn.

"This is the only way to ensure that deadlines are met and that a statistical evaluation can be carried out. Because it is important that we keep an eye on which [social media] operator's complaints are piling up and where they are just isolated cases."

The old German police state is back.

Comments

shitshitshit Jan 26, 2018 2:03 AM Permalink

Bollocks. 

This is the last move from Merkel before being overwhelmed by her constituencies. She tries to give the appearance of legality to the system that once fed her and gave her a living, but sadly times have changed. 

You can't have it both ways miss Merkel. The more you go down this path, the more people will erupt violently once you made their lives miserable.

They will happily regroup through other platforms like Yandex for instance, that is safely tucked in holy mother Russia, therefore well out of reach of the free world censorship. Ha. 

Twatter, Farcebook, Oggle and their ilk are all going to be remembered as the Pravdas and Izvestias of the 21st century.

Bonus:

http://investmentwatchblog.com/how-ludicrous-germany-introduces-womens-…

ACP Haus-Targaryen Jan 26, 2018 2:32 AM Permalink

The problem with the gene pool is that the German gene poll has been bombed out, not the terrorists invading the country. The terrorist invaders still have high testosterone and rape and conquer whereas the German soy-boys have been natured and nurtured to become cucks, much like the neo-fascists have been doing to the white males in the US.

The muzloids eat off the German taxpayers while the German males get stoned off their asses and high off MDMA and other limp dick designer drugs.

Time to drop the pussy whipper drugs and pick up the battle axes and go to town.

In reply to by Haus-Targaryen

Folkvar Haus-Targaryen Jan 26, 2018 3:16 AM Permalink

Not surprised Merkel is former Stasi, there are pictures of her online in her uniform back in the day. She was a well known communist activist in the former East Germany. She claims to be a christian Democrat but she's not, she is a cryptic jew (yep these people again). Her jewish family came from Poland and changed their name twice to a German name so they could go unnoticed whilst also claiming to be christian. She is a communist jew. An evil woman.

In reply to by Haus-Targaryen

Song_Of_Roland ACP Jan 26, 2018 3:06 AM Permalink

First, if lowered testosterone is mainly caused by environmental factors, then it goes to reason that migrants will also be affected.

Second, not all Germans are cucks, mainly just those in the cities. The "country boys" still drink and fight.

Third, the gene pool is not wiped out. Genes tend to move towards median for a "people". For example, if two parents are extraordinarily tall in comparison to their genetic population, their children will be shorter, moving back towards the median. Same goes for IQ, testosterone levels (provided that environmental influences are excluded), etc.

There is still hope for Germany, albeit slim, and the number of people required to repopulate an area is actually quite small. If Germany wants to survive, it must do something within the next ten years before the Under-20 populations is majority minority.

In reply to by ACP

css1971 Song_Of_Roland Jan 26, 2018 3:37 AM Permalink

1. If you wipe out all the males with normal and above testosterone levels. All that will remain will be males with low levels. E.g. during a war. Meaning future generations will have lowered levels.

2. Genes do not tend to move to the median. If that were the case, the entire population would all be on a very thin average after billions of years and the concept of breeding would be nonsense.

Some traits require genes from both parents, meaning they may only be expressed in 1/3 of offspring, for example.

Essentially. Germany is now a country of soy boys.

In reply to by Song_Of_Roland

Song_Of_Roland css1971 Jan 26, 2018 3:50 AM Permalink

Regression towards the mean is documented in genetics. Genetic extremes do not continue down the path of continued extreme-ness. Same applies to IQ, idiots can have intelligent children due to genetic expression within a "people". East Asian, when IQ is mapped on a scatter plot, tend to bunch around a similar score. This occurs over many generations although lower IQ are typically reproducing more.

You are assuming that the entire world population is a singularity. There are numerous groups and each group has a different genetic makeup. Therefore, each group will have a different mean.

If all the males with higher testosterone are wiped out, as is the case during war, then at that moment in time, there will be less men with high testosterone, but a future generation could go back to normal. The problem is that the future generation in this situation might not exist or if it does exist it might be subjugated.

Maybe I am being too positive, but not all are soy boys here.

In reply to by css1971

wildbad css1971 Jan 26, 2018 4:00 AM Permalink

there is a wide range of germans, like there are a wide range of americans. they have been all sufficiently cowed in things NAZI though.

but that kettle is always ready to boil over. they use soccer games, clubs etc. to let off steam but they are finding real ways again to direct that steam to the globalist schwein in Berlin.

there are plenty of tough germans..not enough yet, but people are listening to the arguments now.

thanks mr merkel

In reply to by css1971

GoldenDonuts Haus-Targaryen Jan 26, 2018 2:43 AM Permalink

Nobody in Europe has been more brainwashed than the Germans.  Everyone else was having a party spending Euros like they were Drachmas and you guys just kept going to work building cars to sell them on credit from your banks.  All the while you were busy giving away the freedom that you earned by losing the last war in spectacular fashion.  You vote for an old Communist hag multiple times and call her mommy.  Only in Germany.  Don't forget to feel guilty today or you won't be a good Cherman.

In reply to by Haus-Targaryen

Haus-Targaryen GoldenDonuts Jan 26, 2018 2:55 AM Permalink

Essentially.  

If you talk to my sister-in-law (very typical leftie German) feeling guilty and a sense of "responsibility" is part of what it means to be German.  

I caught her talking to my daughter telling her she has a special responsibility because of Hitler -- and I corrected her on the spot that she should be proud to be German and if anyone tells her others -- she should tell them to gas themselves. 

I'm so irate at this sprint to the Left in this country over the past few years -- I have zero patience with these people now.  Once the economy collapses and many middle-class white German men with families lose their jobs -- and they see their own government put the welfare of black and brown children ahead of their own -- solely because of their skin color -- you're going to have a political right-wing explosion here.  

You're starting to see it in economically "slower" areas and you're definitely seeing it in the suburbs around "multi-cultural" parts of town, and thank Christ for the Russo-Germans who are (I'm convinced) spear-heading the AfD and other right-wing organizations in the country. 

But unfortunately, shit like this is completely acceptable here, get caught with a copy of Mein Kampf within reach of a school-age child -- and your kids get taken away from you.  I shit you not. But, they have no problem teaching Marx and Mao in public schools. 

Things are going to get much worse before they get better.

In reply to by GoldenDonuts

Haus-Targaryen ACP Jan 26, 2018 3:03 AM Permalink

Germans, traditionally, don't deal well with poverty.  

Shock-therapy will require a good dose of poverty to change attitudes and opinions. 

This is already baked into the cake and beyond debate.  What is to be decided is which direction do Germans turn, do they become pseduo-nationalists once again (akin to Poland today) or do they become "internationalists" in the purest sense of the term ("No borders! No nations!" Stop the deportations!")?

Like most of the rest of Europe -- we're just waiting for that catalyst to set this chain of events off. 

 

In reply to by ACP

ACP Haus-Targaryen Jan 26, 2018 3:16 AM Permalink

Shock-therapy will require a good dose of poverty to change attitudes and opinions.

Here lies one of the problems. Look at South Africa. Most of the whites are far more well off than the black South Africans, yet their population continues to dwindle and still, they are more and more vulnerable to the white genocide that has been happening the last 25 years. They MAKE the economy, yet they are still being slaughtered because the rest of the PC world doesn't give a shit and the blacks are too stupid to realize that the whites are the key to their survival. The blacks KNOW that if they slaughter the whites, they will die of starvation because they are too stupid to farm, but they still do anyway.

If the Germans wait until they make up less than 10% of the country, what will they do? Where will they go? Who will help them? By that time, there will be no country on earth with more than a 10% white population.

In reply to by Haus-Targaryen

HRH of Aquitaine 2.0 Haus-Targaryen Jan 26, 2018 3:27 AM Permalink

So throwing money at savages and paying for them to land on your doorstep, suck off the government tit, and breed like rats will mean one thing and one thing: Germans will be impoverished and eventually you will have to wake up and deal with the vermin you kept feeding.

It always sucks when you have to call in the exterminator to deal with vermin.

Good fucking luck with that.

In reply to by Haus-Targaryen

jimmy c korn ACP Jan 26, 2018 3:05 AM Permalink

"Why is an official police site tweeting in Arabic? "

I find what the police did was offensive!

I will contact twitter and report these police and have their accounts suspended.

That Merkel woman offends me too. Going to report her.

Looks to me like the law works both ways.  

Let them fall into the trap they set!

In reply to by ACP

Song_Of_Roland Haus-Targaryen Jan 26, 2018 3:17 AM Permalink

I think those in power are already fearing this shift to the right. In northern Germany, a state parliament is attempting to withhold state election money from the NPD, who rightfully sit in the state parliament and who rightfully should receive money for their party. If this works, they will probably attempt withhold or at least hold up funds from the AfD under some dubious claim... 

This, I would argue, shows the fear of the Alt-Parteien.

In reply to by Haus-Targaryen

css1971 Haus-Targaryen Jan 26, 2018 3:48 AM Permalink

What's amazing is that they turned Hitler into a raving monster that nobody can understand or relate to. He is now "other".

And so they no longer understand why or how he could have captured the German people. They now say shit like "magnetic personality " I.e. magic.

And so they make it more likely to happen again. Meanwhile Hitler's tactics are replicated all over again by the left.

In reply to by Haus-Targaryen

Haus-Targaryen css1971 Jan 26, 2018 5:54 AM Permalink

This tactic will backfire on them.  

See, in Germany Adolf Hitler is being quietly rehabilitated by our own politicians fucking things up so badly.  There was outrage in the last election cycle when people put Martin Schultz's face on Adolf Hitler quotes and the SPD shared them around like wildfire.  Once people figured out it was Hitler, the damage had been done -- and you found many Germans agreeing with what Hitler said because they thought Schultz said it.  

Then there is the right-wing are cozying-up to many of the guys' ideas as much of what he said -- well, he's being proven right.  

And this when Hitler has been made into literally worse than the devil.  What happens -- if -- the education system changes and portrays the guy in simply a minimally less-biased/Lügenpresse light?  His popularity will explode. 

The next decade is going to be interesting. 

In reply to by css1971

Joe A Haus-Targaryen Jan 26, 2018 3:25 AM Permalink

Well, apart from Hitler, that is. He made some really bad decisions that turned out rather bad for Germany. Like going to war with the rest of Europe and America which ultimately led to the destruction of Germany and half of Europe being overrun by communism.

Other than that, yes Merkel not so good. People all over Europe waking up to that.

In reply to by Haus-Targaryen

Haus-Targaryen Joe A Jan 26, 2018 5:56 AM Permalink

Yes, but after the dust settled -- Germany was still Germany filled with Germans. 

After Merkel Germany will no longer be Germany filled with Germans.  Add to that the poison society imported to Germany from the Anglo-Saxon sphere -- and I'd take a bombed out country with an intact culture and society than a standing country with a bombed-out culture. 

Once you can recover from fairly quickly -- the other will take generations -- if ever. 

Merkel is worse than Hitler. 

In reply to by Joe A

Joe A Haus-Targaryen Jan 26, 2018 6:16 AM Permalink

When the dust settled, Germany (the more or less democratic part of it, not be confused with the DDR) was half of pre-war Germany and now filled with Germans from the Eastern Europe that were expelled, I believe some 14 millions. West Germany recovered quickly because of the heavy investment from the Anglo-Saxon sphere with substantial debt forgiveness by countries that also were destroyed by Germany (including Greece).

What has now become dangerous is that in their efforts to avoid another "Nie wieder", the establishment actually made that possibility even worse. By flooding Europe with outsiders not very well adapting to our way of life, the establishment hoped to create some form of utopia where everybody gets along nicely. Also, they tried to increase their electorate votes that way. This kind of backfired and now you have the rise of the conservatives and the right with the danger of the extreme right. It is rather ironic.

Nowadays Germany is a bit like the Weimar Germany that tried to stave off the communists, the nazis, and the influence of conservative elements in the army. They managed to do that despite WWI reparations. The 1929 crash did them in though. That is what it would take this time. Another economic crisis could tip the balance.

In reply to by Haus-Targaryen

Blue Steel 309 Jan 26, 2018 2:27 AM Permalink

Let me translate (((Gatestone))) for you:

 

The jews behind Gatestone are alarmed the jews implementing the police state are moving too fast and are going to spoil all of (((their))) long term nefarious goals of complete subjugation of the goyim.

Koba the Dread Jan 26, 2018 2:29 AM Permalink

What was it Winston Churchill said of Germans? "They're either at your feet or at your throat." Okay, the poor Germans got in over their heads by misunderstanding that nincompoop Charles Darwin. Darwin thought that das Herrenvolk were upper middle class English rentier parasites, though it beats me how anyone could have made such an error. Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle! Er. . .a monkey's nephew. My, how I do babble on!

khnum Jan 26, 2018 2:31 AM Permalink

RIP Udo Ulfkotte who warned us in 2014 all German media was controlled by the CIA,he told us he might die of a 'heart attack' which he did on 13 January 2017 you can see his testimony on you tube,'German journalist blows whistle on how the CIA controls the media. 

SoDamnMad Jan 26, 2018 2:31 AM Permalink

In Germany and Austria in a few other countries I don't know about, you cannot question the Holocaust.  Here is how that undermining of free speech has happened and is spreading.

The head of the Israeli parliament calls on Lithuania to take better care of the memory of Jewish culture and history.  It should be noted that the European Parliament in 2017 1 June adopted a resolution on combating anti-Semitism, urging EU Member States, institutions and agencies to apply the working definition of anti-Semitism recommended by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.  So Israel determines that 6 million died in the concentration camps which is Jewish history and to question history is anti-semitic and illegal requiring punishment up to and possibly including incarceration. 

 

Fireman Jan 26, 2018 2:55 AM Permalink

STASI "Erika" never left and is frantically cobbling some semblance of a gubermint together with Mr Urupp, the bearded moron from the Pedophile Politburo in Natostan shithole capital,  Brussels. The USSAN Bankster Globalist nightmare of the United Snakes of Urupp is alive, barely and these cretins imagine it is going to stay that way.

Only problem is the livestock in the Coudenhove Kalergi equation for a one world dystopia are starting to catch on!

 

"Count" Richard Coudenhove Kalergi’s Plan outlined by Gerd Honsik “Kalergi proclaims the abolition of the right of self-determination, ... the elimination of nations by means of ethnic separatist movements or mass allogeneic (genetically dissimilar) immigration to create a multiethnic flock without quality, easily controllable by the ruling class. Kalergi characterized the multiethnic flock as cruel and unfaithful but maintained the elite must deliberately create them in order to achieve their own superiority: ‘Then the elite will first eliminate democracy – the rule of the people. Next, the elite will eliminate the people via miscegenation, thereby replacing the ruling white race with an easily controllable mestizo race. By abolishing the principle of equality of all before the law, avoiding and punishing any criticism of minorities, and protecting minorities with special laws, the masses will be suppressed.’'

"Count" Richard Coudenhove von Kalergi's genocidal screed "Practical Idealism" 1923 in PDF format (link below) is the original Austrian NAZI and his vile tome makes Onkel Adolf's "Mein Kampf" look like a bedtime story. This mutt laid the foundations for the abomination known as the EUSSR with its capital in the sewer Brussels, seat of the totalitarian Pedophile Politburo that runs the EUSSR for the banksters and satanists.

 

http://www.mediafire.com/file/vcpu7j7hakukmde/Coudenhove-Kalergi-Practic...

 

HRH of Aquitaine 2.0 Joe A Jan 26, 2018 3:55 AM Permalink

Un-fucking-believable. I was in Berlin in 1997 and had some locals leave the gasthaus I was at because I was speaking less-than-perfect Deutsche. No one would notice my broken German these days. And calling someone like me, an Auslander? It seems so quaint, looking back, that they even noticed I wasn't a native-born Berliner. The good old days.

In reply to by Joe A

Malleus Maleficarum Jan 26, 2018 3:35 AM Permalink

Funny how the Stasi isn't a problem until it affects the politicians. In a way, it reminds me of Trump's recent FISA reauthorization here in the states, in all its hypocritical splendor! And while I can't speak for Deutschland, I find it rather disconcerting that several former, high-ranking Stasi officials have stated how they would have absolutely LOVED to get their hands on a surveillance apparatus like the one our Sicherheitsdienst operates here in the 'Heimat.'

I also love how the eternally disingenuous Gatestone and their neocon ilk have no problem with Stasi tactics, as long as they get to decide who's silenced! I guess that's why they chose to skim right over the fact that questioning the Holocaust or "possession of a swastika" and other nonsense are criminalized in Germany, with serious consequences for those who dare to, well...speak freely!