Munich (dpa / lby) – People in Bavaria can now turn to a counseling center if they see hate comments online. The Baden-Württemberg reporting office “Respect” will be used for this purpose, said Bavaria’s Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich (CSU) on Monday in Munich. “All citizens have the opportunity to report hate speech online to the reporting office that has existed since 2017.”
“Respect!” advises and reports criminally relevant content itself. In addition, the reporting office submits a deletion request to the responsible provider, such as Facebook, Google or Twitter, so that inflammatory or discriminatory posts can be removed.
“The 22 hate speech special departments of the Bavarian judiciary conducted 2317 procedures last year,” said the minister. “That was 41 percent more than in the previous year. Hatred and hatred have reached an alarming level.”