Munich (dpa / lby) – The number of investigations into anti-Jewish hate speech online has skyrocketed in Bavaria. Last year, the Bavarian public prosecutor’s office initiated 387 investigations into anti-Semitic so-called hate speech on the Internet, as Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich (CSU) said in Munich on Thursday – 78 percent more than in 2021 (218 initiated proceedings). The number of new investigations into racist online hate speech rose by 16 percent to 401 investigations.
In 2022, a total of 2,435 hate speech procedures were initiated in Bavaria. “Hate and agitation remain at an alarmingly high level on the Internet,” said Eisenreich. According to him, there were 2,317 new procedures in 2021, three years ago 1,648. The hope that the hate speech numbers would decrease after the corona measures were relaxed was not confirmed, said Munich Attorney General Reinhard Röttle.
According to the hate speech officer Teresa Ott, the highest penalty for a conviction for internet hatred in Bavaria is one year and eight months imprisonment on probation. According to her, the man had agitated against refugees and called for politicians to be murdered.
