Fight against online verbal abuse: Renate Künast wins legal partial victory

Incredulous and indignant - as many ruled when in September, a decision of the Berlin district court became known, after which the Green Party politician Renate Künast in social networks like Facebook has to be abused bad. Disparagements such as "piece of shit" and "hazardous waste" as well as bad sexist insults in the alleged cases are to be regarded as "legitimate expressions of opinion" with reference to reality, were the judges.

Künast filed a complaint against it and also takes legal action against further posts on Facebook and Twitter. A law firm even showed the Berlin judges because of alleged right bow.

In a new decision on verbal abuse on Twitter, the Berlin judges followed a complaint Künasts now at least on one point. Accordingly, their request for information to Twitter in a case is granted.

It's about a tweet from July 2017, in which a user account without real name of the politician had put a wrong direct quote ("yes to sex with children") in the mouth. In this case, Künast's request for information to the platform was allowed under data protection law, the court found. According to this, Twitter would now have to give out the user's name and email address, as well as the IP address used when uploading the tweet.

The tweet suggests that it is a verbatim quote from the politician, the court said. This untrue allegation of fact is "capable of disparaging the plaintiff" and inflicting serious damage on its reputation, according to the decision of the Berlin judges on 16 November.

Künast's lawyer speaks of "superficial reasoning"

In further, also complained of Künast tweets, the judges, however, remain on their previous line. As a politician with her own opinions, she also had to accept highly simplified and drastic arrangements of her political stance. The criticized by her phrases such as "abnormal" or "perverse pack" related "for average recipients" not necessarily "on themselves. In general, in comments on the Internet a" generous scale "to create, because it is not a" place of politeness exchange "handle.

Künast is not satisfied with the new decision. "I will not accept the correction decision to my request for information against Twitter so", says Künast the SPIEGEL. "I think it's outrageous when a court says dedicated people have to put up with something like that."

Her lawyer Severin Riemenschneider also criticizes the Berlin judiciary: "The opportunity to remedy the blatant legal errors from the initial decision, the court has not used." The "superficial reasoning" of the district court was "as disappointing as the first resolution" and would not protect the victims from hate speech.

Künast's lawyer considers the judge's reference to allegedly different standards in debates on the Internet as dangerous: "This means a free ticket for the authors of hate messages and hate mail on the Internet and gives a completely wrong signal at the expense of the culture of debate".

Künast wants to exhaust legal recourse

To the displeasure of the Green politician contributes that the Berlin judges have made technical mistakes in their controversial decision on the insults on Facebook in September. After SPIEGEL information, they had to subsequently erase a complete passage from it.

In the paragraph, an alleged opinion of Facebook was reproduced, according to which the comments all "represent admissible opinions" - this opinion of the group had not existed, as confirmed by a Facebook spokeswoman on request. The company therefore asked the court to correct the passage.

As a court spokesman confirmed the SPIEGEL, the passage was "accidentally transferred from a parallel case". It was an "obvious typographical error" that had been corrected. Content changes to the decision of the district court but nothing.

Currently check the chamber, but whether they einast on Künast's complaint, the Facebook statements still insults. If the judges stay with their previous line, and even declare accusations such as "filthy cunt" continue to be acceptable, the dispute goes to the next instance before the Berlin Court of Appeal.

"I will continue until we win or have exhausted all legal remedies," says Künast. It is "not just about my case, but about the question of what people have to endure and accept, who are politically involved in this society."