Tag: germany

Germany has charged or punished over 1,000 people for “online speech-related crimes” since 2018

An in-depth report from The New York Times has revealed the scale of Germany’s prosecution of “online speech-related crimes” and provided a behind-the-scenes look at the units who are tasked with surveilling social media to build cases against German citizens for what they post online.

The Times said that after reviewing German state records, it found that there were more than 8,500 cases related to alleged online speech-related crimes and more than 1,000 people have been charged or punished since 2018. However, no national figures exist on the total number of people charged with online speech-related crimes, and experts that spoke with The New York Times said the true figure is probably much higher.

The Times’ report also provides details on the copious amounts of social media surveillance that are being conducted by a task force in the German city, Göttingen. This task force was created in 2020 and reportedly has hallways, bookshelves, and desks filled with red evidence files. These files contain printouts of German citizens’ Facebook comments, tweets, and Telegram posts. Investigators that work on the task force search through social media feeds, public records, and government data to gather evidence of purported online speech-related crimes.

This task force is in charge of cases across Lower Saxony, a state in northern Germany. Authorities in Lower Saxony reportedly raid homes multiple times per month and in some cases, a local television crew records and broadcasts the raids.

Citizens who are raided but refuse to give up their phones have them seized and sent to a lab. This lab uses software made by the digital intelligence company Cellebrite to unlock the seized phones.

This task force alone investigated 566 “internet speech-related crimes” last year and expects to investigate double that number in 2022. The unit also fines or punishes around 28% of those who are investigated.

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German Domestic Intelligence Is Running 100s Of Fake Right-Wing Extremist Social Media Accounts

Hundreds of the radical Nazis and right-wing extremists online are actually German domestic intelligence agents, and many of them may even responsible for “inciting hatred” and even violence. These agents, who once needed to drink and directly socialize with members of the extreme right, are now running right-wing extremist accounts online in Germany.

Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) argues that these accounts are needed to gather information, but critics say that they may also be promoting and actively encouraging radicalism, according to a report from German newspaper Süddeutshce Zeitung.

“This is the future of information gathering,” an unnamed head of a relevant state office told Süddeutsche Zeitung.

According to research by the newspaper, the authority has invested heavily in “virtual agents” since 2019, which it finances with taxpayers’ money. Both the federal office and the federal states employ spies, who besides right-wing extremists, are also tasked with keeping an eye on the left-wing extremists, Islamists, and the “conspiracy-ideological” scene.

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Hate Hoax In Germany: Green Politician Resigns After Inventing Nazi Death-Threats Against Himself

The alleged death threats from neo-Nazis against Green politician Manoj Subramaniam have made headlines across Germany and led to tension in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany’s largest state by population. However, the councilor from Erkelenz staged the various threats in an elaborate scheme, according to the result of an investigation published by the public prosecutor’s office.

The 33-year-old, whose parents immigrated from Sri Lanka, had submitted numerous complaints.

First, his car windows were smashed, and swastikas sprayed on the vehicle.

Another time, he claimed SS runes and a swastika were drawn on the doorbell of his house.

Then, he revealed that a swastika was scrawled on the sidewalk in front of his apartment and that he found razor blades in the mail.

The politician also received death threats signed by NSU 2.0, referring to the National Socialist Underground (NSU) group that committed a number of murders across Germany for years.

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German Foreign Minister Says Support For Ukraine Will Continue “No Matter What Voters Think”

Despite soaring energy prices that threaten the stability of the country, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said she would continue to support Ukraine “no matter what German voters think.”

Baerbock made the remarkable comments during an event in Prague yesterday organized by the NGO Forum 2000.

“If I give the promise to people in Ukraine – ‘We stand with you, as long as you need us’ – then I want to deliver. No matter what my German voters think, but I want to deliver to the people of Ukraine,” she said.

The German official said that such an approach would not change even if large numbers of people were out in the streets protesting against crippling energy bills.

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Top German politician calls energy protesters ‘enemies of the state,’ ‘extremists’

Herbert Reul, a top German official and the Interior Minister of the North Rhine-Westphalia, has slammed those intending to protest against the country’s impending energy blackouts as “enemies of the state.” 

Speaking to German news outlet NT, Reul described the protesters as “extremists” and revealed that German security forces are maintaining surveillance on supposed extremists who intend to infiltrate the protests and stage violence. 

The protests are being planned through Telegram, which German authorities have previously tried and failed to ban. 

“You can already tell from those who are out there,” said Reul. “The protesters no longer talk about coronavirus or vaccination. But they are now misusing people’s worries and fears in other fields. (…) It’s almost something like new enemies of the state that are establishing themselves.” 

Reul downplayed valid concerns of impending power outages and gas shortages, stating that such issues were feeding “conspiracy theory narratives.” 

As reported by Rebel News, Germany is set to face potential blackouts in the coming winter months as gas and energy shortages have sparked a surge in electric heater purchases by Germans concerned about freezing in the cold months. 

While Reul and other German politicians may be quick to dismiss such concerns as “conspiracy theories,” Germans around the country have been panic buying electric heaters, stoves, and firewood. 

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Nine women are spiked with date rape ‘knockout drops’ at event hosted by German chancellor Olaf Scholz

Nine women were spiked at the German chancellor‘s event in Berlin with ‘knockout drops’ which left them with memory loss, feeling dizzy and unwell. 

German Parliament Police are investigating the Social Democratic Party‘s summer party which took place on Wednesday last week just before the Bundestag went to summer recess.

Almost a thousand people, as well as chancellor Olaf Scholz and other MPs, were in attendance to the party held in a Tipi tent at the Chancellery in Berlin.

The alarm was raised by a 21-year-old woman, who ate food and consumed non-alcoholic drinks at the event. By Saturday morning another four guests reported similar symptoms of dizziness, feeling unwell and unable to remember the evening.

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Blogger claims she is being probed in Germany over Donbass coverage

A blogger with tens of thousands of subscribers has said she is being probed in Germany over her coverage of the Ukraine conflict. German media confirmed the activist is the subject of an investigation by a local prosecutor’s office.

In an interview aired on Friday on Russia’s Channel One, Alina Lipp said she was being “persecuted” in particular for a post from February 24, the day when Russia launched its offensive against Ukraine. Back then she wrote that “denazification” had started, while also accusing Ukraine of killing civilians for years.

“Secondly, I am being prosecuted for the fact that on March 12 I published a video on my Telegram channel where I said that Ukraine is carrying out genocide in the Donbass,” Lipp revealed.

According to the German news website t-online, law enforcement suspects Lipp of “constantly showing her solidarity with Russia’s war against Ukraine,” of fomenting a split in German society and of spreading hatred through “distorted, partially false” reporting.

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The Nazi Evil Behind Germany’s Wealthiest Companies

Supplying uniforms to the German empire, textile magnate Gunther Quandt made millions during World War I.  Shortly after, when electrification was booming worldwide, he gained control of one of the world’s largest battery-makers.  He soon acquired one of Germany’s primary arms and ammo manufacturers.  This was just the beginning.  He went on to gain stupendous wealth and power through deals with the Nazis.  The story of Quandt, as told in David de Jong’s Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties, evokes awe and dread.  For it is about soulless profiteering and participation without any qualms in the enslavement and massacre of millions of Jews.

It is well known that many dynastic German companies owe their standing to their complicity — even willful participation — in Nazi evil.  De Jong investigated five key industrialists who funded Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, were complicit in horrendous crimes, and reaped billions from that cold-blooded investment: Quandt, automaker Ferdinand Porsche, Richard Kaselowsky of the Dr. Oetker Group, financier August von Finck, and industrialist Frederick Flick.  His book details their deals and post-war cover-ups.  It also tells how they were virtually absolved of all wrongdoing because the West needed Germany as a bulwark against Russia and its East European satellites.

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Thought Police: Germany Conducts Mass Raids over Online ‘Insults’ Against Politicians

Federal police in Germany have conducted mass raids across 13 states on Tuesday over online ‘insults’ levied against politicians.

A large number of apartments and houses were raided in Germany on Tuesday as Federal police in the country look to prosecute those who made allegedly hateful remarks against elected officials online.

In total, federal authorities have said that they have checked over 600 statements for so-called “criminal content”, with 100 people being “searched and questioned” across 13 different German states.

According to a report by Der Spiegel, a significant number of raids have also been conducted, with the houses and apartments of those suspected of posting illegal online messages being searched by law enforcement for incriminating evidence.

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Biden will welcome former German Stasi asset who put Antifa supporter in charge of Germany’s homeland security

Why this doesn’t even shock the conscience says more about the state of the Democrat party and Joe Biden than it says about us. What we are referring to is a White House visit by the new German chancellor, Olaf Scholz.

As previously reported in Gateway Pundit, Scholz at one time worked closely with the Communist East German regime against NATO. Now it is also being reported that Scholz’s choice for Homeland Security secretary in Germany is seeking to weaponize the Feds in Germany against conservatives, and what’s more, supports violent Antifa extremists, DC Weekly reports.

Back in the 1990s, Scholz visited the failing East German regime an estimated nine times, for the purpose of dumping on NATO while supporting the violent Communist regime.

At that time, Scholz was welcomed by Communist security head Egon Krenz, later found guilty of the murders of people trying to escape East Germany over the Berlin Wall.

In 1984, Scholz was kept under close surveillance, however given strong support by the Stasi secret police, who praised the Young Socialists who “actively oppose the deployment of Pershing IIs and Cruise Missiles in Western Europe.”

During that visit, Scholz met at the “Institute for International Politics and Economics,” which was a front for the Stasi foreign espionage department HVA, which was revealed by noted Stasi historian Hubertus Knabe, DC Weekly said.

The outlet reports that the former head of German Secret Service, Hans Georg Maassen believed that Scholz’s career had all the marks of having been cultivated as an asset for either the Stasi or the KGB.

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