An AP article mentioned

In Germany, sweeping slurs against women can be punishable as incitement to hatred.

In preparation for the raids, authorities scoured the internet for posts that potentially broke anti-misogyny laws and attempted to identify the authors. …

Communications that are considered illegal include posts in which women are slandered and insulted in a sexualized manner, or publicly encouraged to send nude photos. The authorities also flagged posts that advocated rape or sexual assault or that distributed videos of torture or killing.

And I'm curious:

  1. Are these laws just special cases for incitement to hatred, or are they specific laws about misogynistic content?
  2. How enforced are these laws?

  3. Would private (unsolicited) requests for nudes (or dickpics) fall under these laws or would they fall under a different category? Same for revenge porn?

  4. Also, since the police are investigating them, these are criminal rather than civil offences and if so are there also civil remedies? (I don't know if German law makes the same distinction between civil and criminal matters, so this question might not make sense.)

To be honest, my initial attitude is supportive, although I'm not sure I like the idea of the police trolling through social media to find potentially violating posts (contra having those posts reported to them by victims). So, I'd also be curious about how these laws have been received by feminists, women's rights activists, the broader left, etc. (I assume that the response from the right has been universally misogynistic, so don't care about them lol. Although, if not, I'd be interested.)

by ahopefullycuterrobot

1 comment

  1. Incitement to hatred sounds like the literal translation of Volksverhetzung, which is the generic section 130 of the federal code:

    (1) Wer in einer Weise, die geeignet ist, den öffentlichen Frieden zu stören,
    1.
    gegen eine nationale, rassische, religiöse oder durch ihre ethnische Herkunft bestimmte Gruppe, gegen Teile der Bevölkerung oder gegen einen Einzelnen wegen dessen Zugehörigkeit zu einer vorbezeichneten Gruppe oder zu einem Teil der Bevölkerung zum Hass aufstachelt, zu Gewalt- oder Willkürmaßnahmen auffordert

    Since 2020 at least, [local courts](https://verfassungsblog.de/volksverhetzung-gegen-frauen/) have ruled that despite not being mentioned specifically, this law also covers women as victims of a protected political group.

    Not a lawyer, and you should try DeepL to translate the German articles, they’re straight from the source.

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