After angry Facebook comment against Green politician Hofreiter: Pensioners have to pay a fine of 1,000 euros
Created: 09/16/2022, 17:56
By: Sina Alonso Garcia
The hatred in social media is particularly concentrated on Facebook (symbolic photo).
© Imago/ photothek
When he found out that the Green Party politician Anton Hofreiter hadn't paid any taxes on his second home in Berlin for years, a pensioner from Waiblingen became angry.
He insulted Hofreiter on Facebook - and now he has to face the consequences.
Waiblingen - Hate and hate speech are now an integral part of social media.
Given the numerous insults and swear words that line our home pages every day, many have almost gotten used to it.
It is all the more important to take a stand against hate comments - and, if possible, to prosecute them.
A pensioner from Waiblingen (Rems-Murr-Kreis), for example, now has to bear the consequences of a network freak: Because he insulted the Green politician Anton Hofreiter, he was sentenced to a fine of 1,000 euros.
As
picture
reports, the pensioner from Baden-Württemberg read an article from
Focus Online
on Facebook in March 2021, which was about court riders.
There it was said that the politician had not paid any taxes for his second home in Berlin for years.
The report made Waiblingen so angry that he commented: "This sow should be gassed." Hofreiter then filed a complaint.
The accusation: insult with public invitation to commit a crime.
Pensioner from Waiblingen shows remorse after hate comment: "It's actually not my style"
In court, the author of the hate comment showed understanding.
He climbed in, his fuses blew.
"I freaked out, it's not really my style," he said.
He has since deleted his Facebook profile.
After the public prosecutor's office had demanded a fine of 3,200 euros, the judge ruled more leniently: The Waiblingen pensioner now has to pay 50 daily rates of 20 euros - a total of 1,000 euros.
That the pensioner has to pay for his hate comment is not a matter of course.
Because hatred and hate speech are not always pursued on the Internet - as research by
ZDF Magazin Royale
shows.
As part of a field test, moderator Jan Böhmermann and his colleagues showed that the majority of criminal complaints about hate comments are not taken seriously or pursued.
So it shouldn't come as a surprise that the pensioner from Waiblingen trumpeted his comment to the world without considering the consequences.
