According to state media Die Zeit and FAZ, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (BKA) are tracking down "radicals" and "hate-groups" in 13 federal states. About 40 to 60 households have been raided (conflicting reports, so far). Their crime: Language.
Free speech, as long as it doesn't offend
Now, Germany is not the United States. Germany does not have a First Amendment (freedom of expression from government interference). Quite the contrary, The German Basic Law, Article 1, Sentence 1, states that "the dignity of man is inviolable," which back then (in 1949) was meant to protect Jews and other minorities from state terror: "It is the state's responsibility to respect and to protect the dignity of man." Only after dignity is honored, does law serve human rights.
It means that indignifying language toward minorities must be prosecuted by the state. [In theory; in practice: a waste of time.] It's a political crime. Censorship, therefore, is institutionalized in Germany. Any language that is hurting the feelings of professional victims is a career ender. That's why politicians and the flagship media absolutely love it to accuse their enemies of being...well... of being the next wave of Nazi, upon which the Bureau of Prosecution is obliged - legally - to treat antisemitism.
- German state censors go to great lengths to delete or replace the smallest icons, even in US satire cartoon shows. Source: Southpark
Who decides what's "hate-speech"? Those who cry-baby the loudest!
The Bureau's president, Holger Münch, told the FAZ that "the crime of hate-speech in the Internet must not poison society." The Merkel regime is particularly worried about the fragile harmoniousness of the European Union. After the United Kingdom in June 2016 held a referendum and abandoned the increasingly authoritarian EU, Berlin now wants to criminalize further anti-EU rhetoric on the Internet, how? - by calling critics traitors, segregationists, and foreign agents.
So far, the USA choose to remain silent. Human rights groups choose to remain silent. Although Washington promotes "freedom of speech" everywhere in the world, unconditional, yet it refrains from condemning Germany, a US ally and, some say: a client state. Germany hosts 174 US military facilities, including assassination drones at Ramstein and nuclear bombs at Büchel; it spreads pro-USA propaganda religiously, and it allows the CIA and NSA to surveil all German communication.
