German prosecutors tell '60 Minutes' it's a crime to insult people online as government raids offenders' homes

Fox News ^ | 2/18/25 | Alexander Hall

[DallasBiff]

CBS' Sharyn Alfonsi touted Germany's efforts as 'trying to bring some civility to the worldwide web by policing it'

CBS’ "60 Minutes" aired a friendly interview Sunday with local German officials as the country's government initiates a nationwide crackdown on offensive speech.

CBS’ Sharyn Alfonsi juxtaposed how, even as the United States allows "hate-filled or toxic" speech, Germany is "trying to bring some civility to the worldwide web by policing it in a way most Americans could never imagine."

Germany has been raiding the homes of those it believes to be making offensive statements online. CBS rode along with six armed officers as they raided a suspect’s home and seized his electronics.

Alfonsi interviewed state prosecutors, Dr. Matthäus Fink, Svenja Meininghaus and Frank-Michael Laue, who explained that such laws come as a surprise even to German citizens

[DallasBiff]

Oh my CBS is celebrating the 21st century German fascism.

[dfwgator]

[blackdog]

Germans gotta be Germans.

[econjack]

Watching J.D. Vance’s speech in Munich, he talked about the British arrest of a man across the street from an abortion critics because he was silently praying for the souls that would be lost at the clinic. He wasn’t protesting or yelling, just silently praying. He was arrested for “hate thoughts”.

[ComputerGuy]

German civility?

[rktman]

Butt, butt, butt......1st Amendment and stuf......oh. Never mind!

[dfwgator]

[Resolute Conservative]

I would be in real trouble in Britain and Germany, good thing I have no desire to ever go to Eurtrash again.

[Track9]

Love to do police raids on those who implement this crap. That would be much more ‘civil’.

[Tai_Chung]

Saying that the United States allows “hate-filled or toxic” speech is hate speech in and of itself.

[dfwgator]

Who gets to define what constitutes “hate”?

[shelterguy]

If it was a crime to insult people online in the USA I would get the gas chamber.

[P-Marlowe]

Germany has gone full NAZI.

[blackdog]

American leftists must be so full of jealousy right now.

[Coffee_drinker]

well they started two world wars!

[dfwgator]

Austria-Hungary started WWI.

[Steve_Seattle]

Ok, Sharyn, can Trump lock up all those journalists who called him Hitler? Can he lock up Biden for calling Trump’s followers “semi-fascists”? Can Trump lock up that smelly former FBI agent who called his supporters “un-American” the other day?

[Tai_Chung]

Only liberals get to decide. Allowing Conservatives any power would be considered as a form of hate.

[adorno]

CBS’ Sharyn Alfonsi juxtaposed how, even as the United States allows "hate-filled or toxic" speech, Germany is "trying to bring some civility to the worldwide web by policing it in a way most Americans could never imagine."

"Hate-filled and toxic speech" is still free speech. That's what the American founding fathers intended, even if some or a lot of the speech is offensive. Thus, the founding fathers would get arrested if the U.s. went the way of the current German speech police.

Germany would be arresting most on the left who provide the most hateful speech, online and offline, especially against those who oppose their politics.

Germany is regressing to what they used to be, and could go the way of the old Soviet Union and the current Putin regime. China is also looking in to see how much the Germans have learned from them.

[wildcard_redneck]

Germany needs to be bombed again.