German far-right MP investigated over anti-Muslim social media posts
GERMANY - A far-right German MP is being investigated over comments made on social media after she accused Cologne police who tweeted a New Year message in Arabic of appeasing “barbaric, gangraping Muslim hordes of men”.
Beatrix von Storch, the deputy leader of Germany’s AfD party, was also temporarily suspended from Twitter and Facebook on Monday as a new hate speech law forcing social media companies to remove content came into force on 1 January. The Cologne police’s New Year message was also tweeted in other languages, including English, French and German, alongside Arabic. The authorities are considering whether Von Storch should be charged with incitement to hatred, a criminal offence.
Her Twitter account was suspended for 12 hours over her post. Under the new Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz law also known as NetzDG – social media firms face fines of up to €50m if they do not remove “obviously illegal” hate speech and other postings within 24 hours of receiving a notification. Critics of the law, which was conceived by the Social Democrat-run justice ministry, say it will place censorship decisions that require legal training at the whim of technology companies.
(Theguardian.com)