{"id":92405,"date":"2024-11-14T05:00:27","date_gmt":"2024-11-14T10:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=92405"},"modified":"2024-11-13T18:33:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T23:33:36","slug":"germans-are-perfectly-free-to-post-anything-to-the-internet-as-long-as-it-doesnt-criticize-politicians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2024\/11\/14\/germans-are-perfectly-free-to-post-anything-to-the-internet-as-long-as-it-doesnt-criticize-politicians\/","title":{"rendered":"Germans are perfectly free to post anything to the internet as long as it doesn’t criticize politicians"},"content":{"rendered":"

Once again, eugyppius<\/a> helpfully illustrates the broad range of freedoms German citizens enjoy in their online activities and the totally reasonable<\/em> and not-at-all-insane<\/em> restrictions to those rights:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

“German flag” by fdecomite<\/a> is licensed under CC BY 2.0 <\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

It’s been a while since I last wrote about the highly advanced democratic freedoms that we enjoy in Germany. Here in the Federal Republic, the police will never fine you or harass you or raid your house for criticising the government<\/a> \u2013 except, of course, when they do all of these things, because you happened not even to tweet, but merely to retweet, the wrong image. <\/p>\n

Stefan Niehoff is a 64 year-old retiree who lives in the small town of Burgpreppach in Lower Franconia. He runs an X account with 1,200 followers<\/a>, where he occasionally expresses his dissatisfaction with the present state of German politics and with the Greens in particular.<\/p>\n

In June 2024, he retweeted this image … <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

… which appropriates the logo of a popular cosmetic brand<\/a> to suggest that Robert Habeck, our Green Minister of Economic Affairs, might be a “professional moron”.<\/p>\n

Habeck and his associates are notorious for pursuing internet users who share highly illegal content of this nature. They brought Niehoff’s retweet to the attention of authorities, and the Bamberg public prosecutor’s office decided that Niehoff was indeed guilty of a criminal speech offence. The Bamberg District Court then issued an order permitting the police to search Niehoff’s residence and confiscate his electronic devices.<\/p>\n

In this order, reproduced by NiUS<\/a>, the judges explained their rationale as follows:<\/p>\n