By "W"
eugyppius@substack.com>
date: wed, nov 13, 2024 at 11:22 a.m. est
"german retiree facing criminal charges for retweeting a meme implying that the minister of economic affairs is a m…"
"it's been a while since I last wrote about the highly advanced democratic freedoms that we enjoy in germany.
Monday, November 18, 2024
german retiree facing criminal charges for retweeting a meme implying that the minister of economic affairs is a m…
"german retiree facing criminal charges for retweeting a meme implying that the minister of economic Affairs is a moron"
by eugyppiusNov 13
"it's been a while since I last wrote about the highly advanced democratic freedoms that we enjoy in Germany. 'here in the federal republic, the police will never fine you or harass you or raid your house for criticising the government – except, of course, when they do all of these things, because you happened not even to tweet, but merely to retweet, the wrong image.
"Stefan Niehoff is a 64 year-old retiree who lives in the small town of Burgpreppach in lower franconia. He runs an x account with 1,200 followers, where he occasionally expresses his dissatisfaction with the present state of german politics and with the greens in particular.
"in june 2024, he retweeted this image …
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… which appropriates the logo of a popular cosmetic brand to suggest that Robert Habeck, our green minister of economic affairs, might be a "professional moron."
"Habeck and his associates are notorious for pursuing internet users who share highly illegal content of this nature. they brought Niehoff's retweet to the attention of authorities, and the Bamberg public prosecutor's office decided that Niehoff was indeed guilty of a criminal speech offence. the Bamberg district court then issued an order permitting the police to search Niehoff's residence and confiscate his electronic devices.
"in this order, reproduced by NiUS, the judges explained their rationale as follows:
"on the basis of the investigations to date – in particular the screenshots of the posts and the investigations into the user of the x-account 'IchbinFeinet' – there exists the following suspicion of a criminal offence:
"the accused is the user of the account 'IchbinsFeinet' on the internet platform x with approx. 901 followers.
"at a time that cannot now be determined more precisely, in the days or weeks before 20 june 2024, the accused published an image file using his account that showed a portrait of the federal minister of economic affairs with the words 'professional moron' … in order to defame Robert Habeck in general and to make his work as a member of the federal government more difficult.
"the public prosecutor's office affirms the public interest in criminal prosecution.
"this is punishable as defamation directed against persons of political life in accordance with §§ 185, 188 para. 1, 194 StGB. ...
"the measures ordered are proportionate to the severity of the offence and the strength of the suspicion and are necessary for the investigation...
Armed with this document, Scheinfurt police showed up at Niehoff's house at 6:14am yesterday morning and took his tablet. Police later told the press that the raid was one in a series of enforcement actions – part of something called "an action day against cybercrime." By harassing a lot of cybercriminals all at once, police and prosecutors hope to send a message to the people of Germany that they cannot just retweet anything, and that they may only retweet the right things.
Niehoff is being prosecuted specifically under section 188 of the German Criminal Code, which provides especially stiff penalties for those who dare to "insult" our politicians:
if an offence of insult … is committed publicly, in a meeting or by disseminating content … against a person involved in the political life of the nation on account of the position that person holds in public life and if the offence is suited to making that person's public activities substantially more difficult, the penalty is imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years or a fine.
"the statute originally criminalised only 'malicious gossip' and 'defamation' directed against high politicians, but in April 2021 it was extended to cover "insult" as well. This innovation was part of an entire package of legislation directed against "Hatred and Agitation on the Internet." back then, our politicians were so upset that critics of pandemic measures were attacking them on social media that they felt the need to broaden and perfect existing prohibitions against lèse majesté.
"Niehoff is not the first to run afoul of our new and improved section 188. In 2023, the German blogger and essayist known as Don Alphonso, in an effort to perfect a joke his friend was working on, tweeted obliquely about "a Minister of Economic Affairs who, with his outward appearance, would not stand out negatively in a gathering of train station alcoholics."
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"an image that Robert Habeck posted to his own instagram account, in which he does not at all resemble a train station alcoholic.
"I am grateful to NiUS for unearthing the link.
"with this tweet, Don Alphonso did not even name a specific minister of economic affairs. his phrasing was also highly ambiguous; what does it mean, after all, to 'stand out negatively' in a crowd of bums? that might even suggest the man is well-coiffed. none of these considerations mattered in the end; german prosecutors are extremely unsubtle and literally minded people. (I hope it is still legal for me to type that.) he was indicted for lèse majesté according to this seflsame section 188 and fined 6,000 Euros, before he had his conviction overturned on appeal. in consequence it is now perfectly legal in germany to suggest that a minister of economic affairs somewhere – perhaps even Habeck himself – might resemble a train station alcoholic, even though it is presently illegal to also suggest Habeck might also be a moron.
"that is how much freedom of expression we enjoy here in the best and most democratic germany of all time."
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