Anyone who repeatedly attacks others in a serious personal manner on the Internet will soon be threatened with severe consequences for a report. Key points of the Federal Ministry of Justice for a “law against digital violence” provide that courts can have social media accounts blocked in such cases, as the ARD capital studio reported on Tuesday.
Victims of “serious violations of personality” should therefore be able to request an account lock “under certain conditions” by the court.
The project is therefore aimed at “notorious infringers in the digital space” and is intended to help in particular in cases where it is not clear who is behind a specific social media profile.
According to the key points, such a block must be “proportionate” and should only take place if other options such as deleting a post are not sufficient and there is a “risk of repetition”.
Suspension ‘only for a reasonable period of time’
The owners of the accounts in question should be informed of a blocking request by the respective platform and have the opportunity to comment, it was said. In addition, it should be possible to block a profile “only for a reasonable period of time”.
Ulf Buermeyer from the Society for Freedom Rights and Josephine Ballon from the HateAid advice center welcomed the project, as the ARD capital city studio further reported.
However, they are critical of the fact that according to the ministry’s plans, a perpetrator must first be active several times for a ban to be considered. In addition, such would probably only take effect if a certain person was attacked several times via a profile. Accounts that distribute their hatred to different victims or engage in hate speech would not reach them.
According to the report, the cornerstones also provide that the legal hurdles for those affected should be removed if they want to know the identity of the person who wrote a hate posting.
In the future, usage data such as the IP address will have to be released by order of a court; According to the report, not only the network companies, but also messenger services and telecommunications companies should be held responsible in order to understand to whom an IP address can be assigned. (AFP)
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