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Symbolic picture Hate Speech: 200 officers are to investigate this at the BKA in the future
Photo: Thomas Trutschel / photothek / imago images
The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) expects around 150,000 criminal proceedings per year due to the new Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) against hatred in social networks.
According to current estimates, around 250,000 NetzDG reports are to be expected annually, which will result in around 150,000 new criminal proceedings, "said a BKA spokesman for the newspapers of the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND).
The »Central Reporting Office for Criminal Content on the Internet (ZMI)« with around 200 officers under the umbrella of the BKA will start work on February 1st, »to ensure that the responsible law enforcement authorities prosecute the authors of such criminal content in the Countries, "said the spokesman.
The processes are currently being developed within the BKA, but also with cooperation partners from the police and the judiciary, and tested jointly in order to be as prepared as possible for the time from the deadline.
The reformed NetzDG provides that social networks no longer simply delete criminal content as before, but rather report it to the BKA.
Google and Facebook oppose the reporting requirement
The BKA is currently assuming that the US Internet companies Facebook and Google will not report any alleged criminal offenses for the time being.
Both had submitted applications for interim measures to the Cologne Administrative Court.
The tech companies consider it disproportionate to check all posts themselves for criminal liability and to have to forward them to the BKA in case of doubt and therefore sued in July last year - both in urgent proceedings and in principle.
The Federal Ministry of Justice then decided in August not to insist on reports from both companies until the decision in the urgent procedure.
Regardless of this, however, "other social networks with at least two million registered users would be subject to the statutory reporting obligation under the NetzDG on February 1, 2022," said the BKA spokesman for the RND newspapers.
Recently, the judges' association also spoke of 150,000 new criminal proceedings annually in connection with the NetzDG.
The effectiveness of the NetzDG is controversial, as many users who fear restrictions on their freedom of expression on large platforms such as Facebook or YouTube switch to platforms such as Telegram, which, according to experts, often do not adhere to the NetzDG.
apr / AFP
