After acts like in Illerkirchberg, a “disgusting automatism” starts on Twitter
Created: 07/12/2022 05:03
By: Jana Stäbener
After the crime in Illerkirchberg, Twitter is full of hate speech against asylum seekers.
This is precisely why communications consultant Johannes Hillje now sees the media as responsible.
In Illerkirchberg near Ulm, a 27-year-old man attacked two girls - one of whom died.
The investigators are still at the beginning of their work and are only just clarifying the motive for the crime.
There is no evidence of a political or religious motivation, said Baden-Württemberg Interior Minister Thomas Strobl (CDU) during a visit to the crime scene, according to the
German Press Agency (dpa)
.
Here we recap what we know and don't know about the deadly attack in Illerkirchberg.
Fatal attack in Illerkirchberg is picked up by AfD politicians
It quickly becomes clear that the crime in Illerkirchberg has a political dimension.
Because the suspect is an asylum seeker from Eritrea.
Found food for the right and AfD politicians.
The leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Alice Weidel, asked on Twitter on Monday evening, December 5, why they were silent about the origin of the perpetrator, who was arrested in an asylum accommodation.
Later she added in a tweet how much it annoyed her that no one spoke up, "that we have a problem with some men who came to Germany as 'refugees'".
Ex-Bild boss Julian Reichelt tweeted: "The suspect from #Illerkirchberg comes from Eritrea.
Our government wants to make it (even) easier to come to Germany and reward illegal entry.
To put it bluntly: Nobody wants this insane migration policy, it costs lives.
life of our children".
He is apparently referring to the new plans of the traffic light government, which is reforming the right of residence and wants to enable German citizenship after a shorter period of time.
"Abominable automatism" on Twitter leads to hate speech against asylum seekers
Not only people like Julian Reichelt, the AfD or other right-wingers are rushing against these immigration plans.
CDU politicians have also attracted attention in recent weeks with their criticism of the naturalization reforms.
Among other things, they said that the traffic light coalition would devalue German citizenship.
Here are 9 tweets that "devalue" arguments against naturalization faster than any foreigner would devalue their German passport.
Twitter on Tuesday is full of right-wing tweets outraged that "woken" people don't care about the victims of such crimes.
“There is a significant accumulation.
And it has to be talked about!” writes a user known from the right-wing spectrum.
Terms such as asylum seekers, general suspicion, perpetrators and Illerkirchberg are trending all day long.
A user writes: "I ask all politicians [...] Do you still have a conscience?
How many must die before you change the suicidal asylum policy?”
This is no surprise for the political and communications consultant Johannes Hillje.
"In social networks like Twitter, after such acts, there is an abominable automatism: Even before the background is known, the act is exploited by the AfD and other extreme right-wing actors," he told
BuzzFeed News DE
, a portal from IPPEN.MEDIA.
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“There are intrigues around”
"It is important that the media do not get involved in reporting on suspicions"
According to the framing expert, migrants would be put under general suspicion and declared a general security risk.
In the case of Illerkirchberg, different migrant groups are currently being played off against each other.
“It is important that the media do not get involved in reporting on suspicions.
Hints and speculations about still unknown backgrounds are forbidden, because this can fuel prejudices that can hardly be corrected later," says Hillje.
Precisely because political instrumentalization on social networks can hardly be prevented, journalistic media have to "report extremely carefully." A good example of this is such formats as "What we know - and what not", because it's about simply reporting facts, but not to encourage speculation.
"The opportunity for serious media lies in their credibility," says Hillje to
BuzzFeed News DE
, because fortunately the vast majority still trust journalistic sources more than information from social media.
And maybe that's a good thing, because fake news is piling up on social media like Facebook - including about the Ukraine war. Here are 11 that have been shockingly successful.
