Police in Germany have started carrying out raids in peoples homes in an attempt to prosecute people for inciting “hate speech” on Facebook.
A press release from Germany’s federal police agency confirmed that around 60 homes were searched this week as a result of people posting messages deemed as extreme by the German authorities.
“The action carried out today shows that the authorities are acting firmly against hate on the internet, which has grown considerably in the wake of the refugee situation,” said Holger Münch, head of the BKA, said in the statement.
“Attacks on refugees are often the result of radicalization, which begins on social networks. These words should not poison the social climate,” he continued.
The move comes after it was revealed in January that Mark Zuckerberg had teamed up with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in order to censor people’s frustrations with her migrant policy, when she decided to open up Germany’s borders to millions of migrants last year.
Facebook consequently introduced a policy where they agreed to remove anything deemed as “hate speech” within 24 hours.
Since the migrant crisis, the country has been rocked by protests against the policy, principally led by the anti-Islamic Pegida movement, as well as the success of the Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland) in the recent regional elections.
You can follow Ben Kew on Facebook, on Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at ben@yiannopoulos.net.
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