This month, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) conducted a nationwide search for citizens accused of committing speech crimes. The annual crackdown is part of Germany’s robust censorship and speech criminalization policies. As European Union censors seek to expand the reach of laws like the Digital Services Act (DSA), all Americans need see the existential threat to our most “Indispensable Right.”
We have discussed how Germany is extending its criminalization of speech to the Internet. Germany imposed a legal regime that would allow fining social networks such as Facebook up to 500,000 euros ($522,000) for each day the platform leaves a “fake news” story up without deleting it. The country fined YouTube to force the company to remove views that the government considers disinformation on COVID-19.
Germany has also targeted Elon Musk with threatened prosecution if he does not reestablish censorship systems at X.
None of this, mind you, has put a dent in the ranks of actual fascists and haters. Neo-Nazis are holding massive rallies by adopting new symbols and coded words, while Germany arrested a man on a train because he had a Hitler ringtone on his phone.
Last year, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser was upset that civil libertarians were calling her anti-free speech, so she tried to shut down a publication for a satirical meme.
For this reason, it was fitting that the recent World Forum was held in Berlin. I spoke in Berlin at the World Forum, where European leaders gathered in one of the most strikingly anti-free speech conferences I have attended. This year’s forum embraced the slogan “A New World Order with European Values.”
That “new world order” is based on an aggressive anti-free speech platform that has been enforced for years by the European Union. It is vividly evident in the latest crackdown in Germany.
According to the BKA, there were 10,732 crimes related to online hate speech committed last year—a record number and four times the crimes from 2021. It is an example of the insatiable appetite created by censorship as people seek to silence their critics or those with opposing views.
Stefan Niehoff, a 64-year-old former Bundeswehr sergeant was convicted for posting satirical images involving Nazi imagery. While the criminal case was eventually dropped, he was fined because the judge failed to find his actions sufficiently satirical.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister, Christian Democrat Herbert Reul seemed to relish the power: “Digital arsonists must not be able to hide behind their phones or computers. Anyone who thinks anything is allowed on social media is seriously mistaken.”
He added that “people have forgotten the difference between hate and opinion.” For those who cannot tell the difference, the solution is just to stay silent or risk a knock on the door. It is the very chilling effect reflected in the recent polling showing that most Germans are now uncomfortable sharing their views in public.
According to a poll of German citizens. Only 18% of Germans feel free to express their opinions in public. 59% of Germans did not even feel free to express themselves in private among friends. And just 17% felt free to express themselves online.
This is why some of us have praised Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their stands against European censorship.
Free speech is in a free fall in Europe and E.U. censors are trying to globalize their reach, including pressuring American companies to censor citizens. They are receiving the support of leading American politicians and pundits. If Americans want to see what awaits down this road, they need only look at Germany this month.
Jose Hernandez Reyes is a three time convicted felon.
He has been deported 5 times in the past for illegally entering the US.
He has convictions for cocaine possession, illegal possession and discharge of a firearm, and DUI.
Until recently he was still in federal prison serving his sentence.
He is just the kind of criminal illegal alien Trump promised to deport.
RIGHT ?????
He has just been granted early release from prison and been given a work permit and a promise not to be deported.
WHY ????
Because he has promised to testify against Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
So Trump is releasing an illegal alien with an actual criminal history, and allowing him to stay here and work legally, so he can testify against someone with no criminal record who got picked up by mistake.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/06/28/star-witness-against-kilmar-abrego-garca-was-due-be-deported-now-hes-being-freed/?pwapi_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJyZWFzb24iOiJnaWZ0IiwibmJmIjoxNzUxMDgzMjAwLCJpc3MiOiJzdWJzY3JpcHRpb25zIiwiZXhwIjoxNzUyNDY1NTk5LCJpYXQiOjE3NTEwODMyMDAsImp0aSI6ImVkZTBmMDcyLWEyOTEtNGU5Zi04NGIwLWY5YzdiZGYwMmQxYiIsInVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lndhc2hpbmd0b25wb3N0LmNvbS9pbW1pZ3JhdGlvbi8yMDI1LzA2LzI4L3N0YXItd2l0bmVzcy1hZ2FpbnN0LWtpbG1hci1hYnJlZ28tZ2FyY2Etd2FzLWR1ZS1iZS1kZXBvcnRlZC1ub3ctaGVzLWJlaW5nLWZyZWVkLyJ9._Nch735ocr9BypFYB3Xw3tJUhhZe5g2iCY6LIT4QPPA
So clearly this guy is a stand up fellow with absolutely no incentive to lie about Abrego Garcia.
Kinda like Michael Cohen, huh? Oh, but you wanted to believe his lies.
Stop defending the wife-beating, gang banging, human trafficking piece of trash, Garcia. The only mistake was not letting him rot in a prison in his own country, now we’ll have to pay to house and feed this loser in our prisons for decades to come.
So you are perfectly fine with Trump releasing an illegal alien and convicted felon who has been deported 5 times, with a promise to allow him to stay and work here.
If he helps put your nauseous hero Garcia behind bars for the rest of his life, sure. Whatever it takes to make you and your ilk regret ever championing a person so odious as Garcia.
I thought these illegals were all lawyers and doctors just waiting for their break. Get bent loser.
These responses are truly fascinating.
The mental illness of the MAGA morons is on full display.
Yawn. That’s a very cerebral riposte, simply calling others names. Try looking in the mirror sometime.
Your childish projection is duly noted.
lol… Have you read the rantings of our newest SS court person. That would be a MORON!
@Anonymous
At least you tried. 😢
“Jose Hernandez Reyes is . . .”
Well there’s a blockbuster headline: Smaller fish gets plea deal to testify against bigger fish.
If by “blockbuster” you mean: “Get Trump.”
Sam
Yet more evidence of MAGA mental illness.
Which is the small fish here ????
Jose Hernandez Reyes is a 3 time convicted felon who has been previously deported 5 times.
Abrego Garcia has no criminal record and has never been deported before this sorry episode.
Still defending the wife-beating, gang banging, human trafficking piece of trash, Garcia? He’s now been indicted on a slew of charges. So much for the “no criminal record” lie. And never been deported? So what?
I’m not defending Garcia.
If he is guilty, then he should go to prison.
The problem you have is that the government admitted in court filings and oral arguments that Garcia was removed to El Salvador in error.
The government did not indict him until AFTER he was sent to El Salvador.
The indictment is clearly manufactured after the fact using “witnesses” who were in federal prison after multiple convictions. These criminal illegal alien witnesses have been given early release, work permits and promises that they will not be deported, in exchange for testifying against Garcia.
On its face, the indictment of Garcia is a completely manufactured effort to try to justify his mistaken removal to El Salvador, which the government has already admitted was an error.
This is not the rule of law.
It is the rule of a completely lawless, autocratic regime.
georgie, Marco Rubio could have removed Garcia under even LESS. What is “manufactured” is your effort to try to justify his mistaken [return] “
Actually Rubio could not have legally removed him at all.
In 2019 an immigration judge ruled that the evidence of his gang membership was unreliable because it was double hearsay from a police officer who had been convicted of criminally improper conduct in his duties.
The judge also granted him “withholding of removal status” which allowed him to live and work legally in the United States. That status has not been revoked.
Unless his withholding of removal status is revoked, then the only legal way he can be removed is if he is convicted of a crime.
That is why the government has manufactured the charges against him using incarcerated criminal illegal aliens as “witnesses” who have been promised early release from prison, given work permits and promises that they will not be deported.
The Trump administration is willing to release a 3 times convicted felon and criminal illegal alien who has been deported 5 times in the past in exchange for obviously false testimony against Garcia.
Garcia was not indicted of any crimes until AFTER the government admitted that they had illegally removed him.
None of this passes the smell test.
Facts can be very inconvenient, don’t you agree ????
georgie, you keep reverting to the same discredited arguments, after you have been repeatedly corrected.
Under immigration statute, Rubio does NOT have to prove a crime was committed.
Facts can be very inconvenient, don’t you agree georgie????
They refuse to accept the fact that simply being in this country illegally is a crime, in and of itself. Garcia’s very presence was an ongoing crime.
If Rubio can deport Garcia without proving he committed a crime, then why didn’t he do exactly that the moment Garcia set foot on US soil after his return.
The reason is simple.
In 2019 an immigration judge granted him “withholding from removal” status, meaning he was legally permitted to live and work in the US. That order is still in effect. Rubio cannot override that order.
That was the rationale for the subsequent order to return him to the US.
Unless the order of the immigration judge is revoked, the only way Rubio can order Garcia’s deportation is if he is convicted of a crime.
That is why the DOJ fabricated the charges AFTER he was sent to El Salvador.
They knew that if they were forced to bring him back, they would have to convict him of a crime before he could be deported.
Your claims make absolutely no sense.
If Rubio can simply order Garcia to be deported, why are they bothering to try to convict him of something ???
when George is afraid of being called out for the errors in his comments, he reverts to “anonymous.”
We don’ need no reeding compahenshun. It’s pretty shallow stuff.
He was in the country illegally. This is not as hard as you’re trying to make it out to be. Stop defending a wife beater. What is wrong with you?
In 2019 an immigration judge granted him protection from removal status. That order has not been revoked.
That order allowed him to legally live and work in the US. It also allowed him to enroll in classes at the University of Maryland.
Don’t care. He has to go home. I don’t care if some idiot judge bought his sad fable previously. Now, he’s going to jail, then he’s getting deported again, this time never to return.
Find a better hero. Stop defending a wife beater. You’re a sick person.
Yawn. A lot of words to say that yes, you defend the wife-beating, gang banging, human trafficking piece of trash, Garcia. At least be honest about it.
Stop trying to appeal to some higher law that does not exist. He had no right to be here. This is only complicated in your tiny mind.
I don’t really care, Margaret.
Garcia will soon be in jail for years, only to be deported again. Find better heroes than this kind of scum.
Maybe we think about what Germany and the EU want as an attack on the speech right here on this blog. What is the effect of Europe regulation on what there is to read and say here in the USA? Does it take away our speech? If our speech is a ship in international waters, are we going to let them close the Strait of Hormuz?
The EU DSA is an attack on the free speech rights of every person on the planet. Germany is trying to use the EU to do an end-run around the American constitution. We need to aggressively defend the rights of American citizens on the internet from German censorship.
Hildabeast wants the DemonRats to use the EU globalist I censorship against our country just like that. They always tell us beforehand what their plans are, if only we would really pay attention to what they say.
@Anonymous
That is precisely what they are doing, and we don’t have to let them. Their hubris is just stunning, and they expose their madness more and more every day.
Good article professor. They must be following our lead as our nation is cracking down on visas students critical of our government. Rough times for freedom of speech everywhere it seems.
Bull. Foreigners have no right to be in our country. If they openly oppose our way of life then why on earth would we want them here.
The issue is they are being critical of the Trump administration. Not America itself. There is a profound difference. How petty that is.
Anti-semitic and anti-Israeli protests are somehow the same as being critical of the Trump administration? Care to square that circle? You’re a joke.
By highlighting individuals such as Mahmoud Khalil, whose record includes anti-American and antisemitic rhetoric, you are inadvertently signaling alignment with extremist ideologies. Thank you for clarifying your position.
-And thank you for clarifying his position.
Thank you, Lin, though the real credit belongs to Jeff for so artfully revealing the substance of his convictions. While they reflect a fundamentally anti-American worldview, one must at least acknowledge his candor in expressing such animus.
Not…..
PulEEZE.
“What are the beliefs of Mahmoud Khalil’s activist group CUAD? – analysis”
https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/article-845664
“Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) is a coalition of student organizations at Columbia University in New York City that describes itself as ‘Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization.’”
https://www.influencewatch.org/organization/columbia-university-apartheid-divest-cuad/
(my ^comment is addressed to “Jeff.”)
Dual-use “student” Visas? There are precedents.
No the visas aren’t going to people who threaten Americans. You are very disingenuous. Like FDR said, you don’t have to let a rattlesnake bite you to know it’s dangerous.
Yup. And FDR stuck several hundred thousand American citizens in camps because they were of Japanese decent. Learn some history.
Another non sequitur. You really have no arguments to make, do you?
Because he is your typical dem-o-rat. Just lie Wilson and LBJ. I’ve been around lone enough to see this mess unfold.
Absolute non sequitur. Student visas are given at the discretion and pleasure of the Secretary of State and the President. We can revoke them, and refuse to renew them, for almost any reason. They have no right to be here, we’ve granted them the temporary privilege to come and obtain a degree. Are you the kind of person who, after being invited to dinner at someone’s house, proceeds to trash the host after the meal?
Correct. However if you are critical of the Trump administration, and that is all it takes, you are automatically denied entry. Fact.
That may be true in one respect: individuals who are both anti-American and antisemitic, regardless of their stance on Trump, may face automatic denial of entry. Yet, despite this, you continue to align yourself with such figures. The pattern speaks for itself.
Facts require proof.
That’s quite an assertion that you made there. All it would take is a single counter example. But it’s not my job to disprove your lies.
These foreigners have no right to enter the US anyway. We could deny entry because we simply didn’t like the color of their shoelaces. You’re an idiot.
Poor Jeff …….. You make no attempt to hide your TDS, as it’s your only point of reference when making a comment. Basically you ignore the fact that importing hate-filled anti-American, anti-semite activists to our Universities isn’t a good idea, while injecting your own personal obsession with President Trump. “How petty that is” ………..
@Jeff
🧌🧌🧌
Comrade Jeff is effecting controversy, believing it will attract visitors to his “blog.”
Comrade Jeff isn’t an American; he is a Jeffian.
Comrade Jeff is effecting controversy, believing it will attract visitors to his “blog.”
Comrade Jeff isn’t an American; he is a Jeffian.
Have you thought about how much speech freedom you are willing to cede to someone who is out to destroy you and your family? Your livelihood? Your safety? All through public utterances they can make?
If you haven’t — if you’ve only thought about it from your ability to speak freely (and others who think as you do) — then you’re not tuned into the complexity of the issue.
The starting point is acknowledging that there are fanatical, militant people who hate you, and will use every tool at their disposal to cut you down. Now, you’re ready to think clearly about they’re being reasonable limits to “free speech”.
This all started, officially, with the questionably unconstitutional “Hate Speech” legislation. It started being noticed by myself when I was on campus in 1973 and an affirmative action student from NYC yelled at a professor that if she didn’t get an “A” in his class she was going to blame it on his racism.
Now that is a little more subtle of a threat than that of being incarcerated or fined for expressing truth, but we were already on that path when democrats took over government under JFK?LBJ and started this entire ball rolling.
Maybe you weren’t around, but in the early ’50s, speech was silenced with the threat of being labelled a “communist sympathizer”. These false accusations came from the right, pols like Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon.
The militant, paranoid, manipulative accusation goes back to pre-historic mankind.
If you think “free speech” is so permissive as to allow the cancelling of someone you don’t agree with, then you leave yourself vulnerable to being cancelled. It’s not about “which party is doing it more?” It’s about how much speech freedom you want to cede to those who hate you and want to use speech to destroy you, your security, and your livelihood.
Looked at that way — where each of us is vulnerable to unfair, dishonest attack — there seem to be reasonable limits to the use of public speech (to denounce, dupe, intimidate and defame others). It’s really a question of HOW these limits are upheld and enforced. This is the legal conundrum of our time.
What doesn’t impress me are those inclined to solve it with a double-standard — freedom to speak for me, and less for those who disagree with me. Our legal system of blind justice doesn’t work that way.
I agree, but McCarthy and Nixon were correct.
Yes, I was around then and ive5 noticed the increase of intolerance as we became a more fractured society ending up where we are now, 2 separate culture trying to inhabit the same teal estate and that rarely ends well – especially when one side has a proclivity to use violence as a method of “free speech”.
Still, I wonder how much of this “division” is manufactured by activists who then employ psychological warfare to purposefully fracture our unity.
The antidote to the deprogram a radicalized person is to present them with a continuous stream of facts and truth. That, of course, is dependent on a person receiving well researched information. And that is not going to happen with a good deal of the modern media.
Oh dear, someone has never heard of the Verona project, or what we learned when the Russians briefly opened their archives to Westerners, after the wall fell. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but many of these “false accusations” were absolutely true, there were many communist sympathizers and outright spies in your ranks.
“Witness” – Whittaker Chambers
To this day the left still pretends that Alger Hiss wasn’t a Soviet spy. It’s incredible.
North Rhine-Westphalia’s Interior Minister, Christian Democrat Herbert Reul declared that: “people have forgotten the difference between *hate* and opinion.” (emphasis added)
“When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the German constitution guaranteed freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Through decrees and laws, the Nazis abolished these civil rights and destroyed German democracy. Starting in 1934, it was *illegal to criticize the Nazi government*.” (https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/nazi-propaganda-and-censorship; emphasis added)
Whether the alleged goal of censorship is to stop criticism of government or the spreading of “hate” — it’s still government censorship.
The Germans have learned nothing from their history of power-lust and tyranny.
To save free speech, they have to destroy free speech!
Can I add two adjectives to your sentence?
“To save honest free speech, they have to destroy deceitful (free) speech.”
We all have a common sense understanding of when someone is being authentic, good-willed and trustworthy. And, when someone is being devious, calculating, manipulative and selfish. If we want our public channels to remain honest and trustworthy, then limiting public speech to authentic utterances and images makes sense.
If we want our society to go down the toilet drain, where public trust and confidence in one another totally evaporates, give the most manipulative among us the “freedom to dupe” — by interpreting the 1st Amendment to go that far. It’s a choice, and it’s right in front of us now.
You may not think the “Euro way” is effective or beneficial, fine. Suggest a better approach. But, don’t retreat into “anything goes” speech freedom. That’s a dagger in the heart of a civil, mentally-healthy society.
The craziest thing is, people in those countries and devout leftists here will insist they are more free, at least for now, until it is much too late. I’m sure the Aryans felt ‘liberated’, too, in their ‘cleansing’. 🙄 The globalist elites have pulled off quite a hat trick.
We have to stop it in its tracks here, and we have to cease the ideological poisoning of our young people. I never thought we’d see this in the West again, but here we are. Exploitation, deceit, and brute force are the only things in the fascist tool box, and most of Europe and our modern left seem to be digging around in it looking for the right tool.
Spot on James.
James – That’s a very clear snapshot of where we’re actually at.
Didn’t the biden justice dept go after a guy who posted a meem or what ever you call it?
This roundup is not exactly a new development in Germany or the European Union as a whole. Europe has never fully embraced freedom of speech in any context that it is close to the US interpretation of free speech. They nearly all promise freedom of speech BUT then there are caveats, carveouts, special circumstances and such. Especially the newer aspects of theses laws in Germany were to prevent the rise of Naziism again yet they neglected to eliminate many laws from the Nazi era favoring the state, teaching of the children only by the state and so on. France has them also and you have very limited ability to even criticize the President or Prime Minister of France.
And all this from the Continent that gave us the Enlightenment.
They begged for help in WW1, then WW2, then Yugoslvia, then Ukraine and then once we helped clear it up Europe rushed us off the continent again so they could go back to their never ending squabbles, insult us again and again until they suddenly need us.
Who but Germany would close their nuclear plants, block drilling for natural gas, throw up windmills, get rid of any use use of coal, build pipelines to the most unreliable nation on the continent who has been trying to bury them for a century, then wonder why the energy bills triple and as a result gut their world class manufacturing centers and cripple the biggest economy in Europe.
Sorry but there is some sort of brain malady in Europe that defies reason. They are like a diabetic who you repeatedly save from a diabetic coma and then immediately returns to the lifestyle that put them in a coma in the first place. They might as well forget their insulin and shoot up or swallow Fentanyl. It would be quicker and final
Of course Barry Obama thinks we need to do more to ‘regulate the hate’ here in America.
All the commies do.
Establishing Control of the Press. When Adolf Hitler took power in 1933, the Nazis controlled less than three percent of Germany’s 4,700 papers. The elimination of the German multi-party political system brought about the demise of hundreds of newspapers produced by outlawed political parties.
“Aryanization” Through measures to “Aryanize” businesses, the regime also assumed control.
So yes it can happen again. Most of all when Government doesn’t like what others say.
@Dustoff
The irony is lost on them. None of this is good. We all got to see what their ‘new world order’ would bring us from 2020-2025, and we can’t let it happen here.
That this is the *global* left is insanity. The likes of North Korea or the Taliban must be positively giddy, though.
Jonathan: Germany is not criminalizing free speech. It’s guaranteed under the German constitution. But given Germany’s experience under Hitler’s Nazi regime successive governments have tried to prevent the reemergence of fascist ideologies and parties. Section 139 of the German criminal code, known as “Volksverhetzung”, criminalizes inciting hatred against segments of the population–like immigrants.
And Germany has persecuted individuals for hate speech that encourages violence under the Network Enforcement Act (“NetzD6”) which requires social media platforms, like Musk’s X, to remove content, including hate speech, with 24 hrs or face significant fines. The one person who hates the German laws is Elon Musk, himself a fascist, who has turned X into a sewer of neo-Nazi propaganda and other hate speech. That’s why Elon spent millions backing the right wing nationalist party (NfD) in the last federal elections. German voters rejected the NfD.
As a fervent backer of Musk you almost celebrate his resistance to German law because it has not “put a dent in the ranks of actual fascists and haters” because “neo-Nazis are holding massive rallies by adopting new symbols and coded words”. Like that is a good thing!
It’s bizarre you would endorse Musk and the reemergence of fascist parties in Germany and the EU under the rubric of “free speech”. We know what happened to free expression under Hitler’s regime. It was ruthlessly and violently stamped out. That is what the German government and other members of the EU are trying to prevent!
How are the drugs Denny?
Please point to any arrests for people being arrested for leftist “rhetoric” or being a supporter of communism/socialism.
So Germany and the EU are protecting free speech by prosecuting free speech?
Got it! 😜🤪
Give that man a kewpie doll!
As the tone of political speech veers off from civility, authenticity and dispassionate meritocratic argument into deep fakery (deceitful infowarfare), hateful rhetoric and outright intimidation, people DO clam up. The loudest, most manipulative, militant voices crowd out less sensationalistic voices.
That you question this phenomenon indicates you’ve been sleepwalking through the past 15 years.
Prosecution is not the best approach, but neither is sitting by passively while zealotry takes over the public square. Some middle ground (e.g., defamation lawsuits) seems the better approach. Why not confront the producer of deep fake political infowarfare with a Public Frauds suit?
Is shouting, “from the river to the sea” hate speech?
Is shouting, “globalize the intifada” inciting violence?
Is Antifa a fascist organization?
Yes, yes, and yes. And the feds are taking steps (short of prosecution) like deportation and denial of visas to tamp down fanaticism in our public square. We’re doing it our way. The Europeans are doing it their way. Both care about preserving the authenticity, trustworthiness and cohesion of the public infospace. Both reject the moral confusion that accords militancy and civility the same legal status.
dennis
criminalizes inciting hatred against segments of the population–like immigrants.
So you think it’s a good idea to go after your own people, when they complain about people brought into the county. Who rape, stab and other wise hurt others is OK?
You must be a big fan of North Korea.
Hopefully, Musk will sue you for falsely mislabeling him a fascist. It’s maliciously defamatory. It’s also a lie that Musk turned “X into a sewer of neo-Nazi propaganda and other hate speech.”
He did no such thing.
He provides a communication platform for others to use. X users decide for themselves whose accounts they want to read and what ideas they themselves want to express. As far as I know, Musk does not direct anyone to post what you call neo-Nazi propaganda or hate speech, and he does not direct any X user to read it.
This the perfect example of radical hate speech
“We know what happened to free expression under Hitler’s regime. It was ruthlessly and violently stamped out. That is what the German government and other members of the EU are trying to prevent!”
So: To inoculate you from censorship, here’s a dose of censorship.
And from that same school of ideological medicine: “Freedom is slavery.”
Dennis, the problem becomes who defines what is “hate speech”, what is dis-information. If you don’t allow people to express themselves the anger festers until a “Hitler” arises. People will always want what is forbidden. There is no chance of someone listening to a rebuttal of their views, because of censorship those views go underground and grow. Now, rebuttal may not change the view of, say a poster, but it may change the view of someone else who has read or listened to something offensive. When does just reading or listening becomes criminal, is that the next step?
Who determines what is “dis-information”, the government? We saw during Covid our government’s push to censor viewpoints other than the proscribed government one, where, for instance, they threatened Facebook if they did not censor viewpoints, and many of those viewpoints turned out to be right.
When someone is afraid to say their opinions in their own home lest someone report them, you have a larger potential problem than the opinion or speech itself.
You post from a position of enjoying free speech, where some people may find what you write offensive, hateful. But no one is going to beat down your door and arrest you for saying what you do. However, Elon Musk may sue you for calling him a fascist.
Get your own blog loser. Nobody cares.
Wow …… that’s truly some fantastical pretzel-logic.
Free speech is “guaranteed under the German constitution.”
As did the Soviet Constitution. How’d that work out?
I would say we will be to blame if we let this demon loose in the states. The past four years should be enough for every American to wake up when that great document is put into the hands of the untrustworthy.
This demon loose… fear not, the USA has constitutional as well as case law that will protect stupid people on the internet from getting sued or jailed.
It’s the lunatic judges who we need to fear.
Not jailed. Sued for defamation?…..yes, that’s how our Constitution allows confronting deceitful infowarfare.
The 1st Amendment is NOT neutral on truth vs. deep fakes. Our moral preference for honesty and trustworthiness over public frauds finds many useful tools in the legal system, perhaps not enough for the borderless internet era.
This is where authoritarianism begins. Europe is entering a dark time and there are advocates for censorship in the US. NATO has been in the news recently as Trump pushes the member states to increase their defense spending to counter Chinese and Russian aggression. If this trend in Europe continues we may find ourselves alone in the world as individual freedom is supplanted by state power.
Entering a dark time… wrong, Europe has never the dark time. Better start reading books about …
Deporting militant, antisemitic students is soft censorship. You don’t seem that worried about that leading to a “dark time”. I don’t either. Let’s use the tools we have to put down zealotry and militancy. It’s just common sense.
For Americans, the film The Lives of Others shows how awful the Stasi was. For Frederick Merz and the CDU/CSU, it’s a “how to” manual.
The film is purely fictional drama.
So was 1984, but those of us smart enough to grasp the danger we understand its importance.
Did you write “those of us smart enough”. You’re joking right? You smart? Thanks for the laugh.
Hey High School, go do your homework and put on your acne cream.
What danger are you referring to?
Outrage in Germany as judge jails woman, 20, for sending online insults to a gang-rapist – after all but one of nine men convicted of attack on girl, 15, were allowed to walk free from court
Nine attackers were found guilty of raping a girl in a Hamburg city park in 2020
Even convicted criminals have privacy rights, just like in the USA. But so what.
Bull. Free press allows you to say what you want about that person. Most of all their crime.
Reporters do it all the time.
Please define “privacy right”, especially for those raping.
Hully
Bet he won’t or give some worthless comment
Hey everyone, we found the person who watched this film but was cheering on the Stasi. Incredible.
Purely fictional? Like, every bit was invented from whole cloth, like The Hobbit? You don’t actually believe that I hope. The stasi were real. The rooms of jars with human-scented cloths, real. The fact that every typewriter was registered with the state, real. The unchecked spying of the citizens, real. Are you just trying to diminish the crimes of a communist state?
One has to wonder why those leftist defenders of democracy, saving democracy from the right whom they term ‘the biggest threat to democracy’, hate free speech so much when free speech is necessary to democracy?
They do not hate free speech. German libel laws go back to Bismarks’ time. What you think the Germans are doing is SOP. Always has been and will be.
Wow, glad they had these “sane and normal” libel laws or else something bad may have happened in the 1930s.
Gotta ask, what do those laws have to do with Hilter’s rise to power?
And why the quotes?
You need me to explain why I used quotation marks around sane and normal?
The point that went over your head is that these laws didn’t do squat to prevent the rise of the Nazis, so why should we expect any better efficacy this time around? (I do not mean to equate any of the existing parties in Germany to the Nazis, for what it’s worth)
“. . . libel laws . . .”
A civil, not criminal, matter.
And it’s Bismarck, not “Bismark.”
If we are not free to hate, we have taken the psychological and legal equivalent of soma. Welcome to Brave New World (“Order”).
We must be free to hate—e.g., we hate murder and, even, murderers (though as a Christian the latter is not acceptable)—so long as that hate does not involve violence or the promulgation of such.
Whatever happened to learning the important life-lesson of, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me”? Without such a belief and feeling we are dysfunctional.
‘…all Americans need see the existential threat to our most “The Indispensable Right.” ‘
I see what you did there!
Well, as my German landlord used to say, “this never would’ve happened in Hitler’s day!”
German landlord huh? Bet you a dollar you made that up.
Mark my words, it’s true…