Social networks must report crimes

adminonJanuary 13, 2022January 5, 2022Leave a Comment

Symbolic image of hate on the Internet © Asiandelight (shutterstock)

Hate and incitement on the Internet will be prosecuted more consistently and punished more severely in the future. The Bundestag has now passed a package of laws to combat right-wing extremism and hate crime.

The Bundestag passed a law to combat right-wing extremism and hate crime, especially on the Internet. The regulation was passed with the votes of the governing coalition against the votes of the AfD and the Left, with the abstention of the FDP and the Greens. The aim is to improve law enforcement and combat the brutalization of communication.

According to Federal Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD), the reform is "of central importance for the defense of our democracy and our constitutional state". The Greens, Left and FDP accused the regulation of violating the protection of personal data. The AfD saw the regulation as a restriction of freedom of expression.

Criminal content must be reported to Federal Criminal Police Office

The law obliges social network providers to report certain criminal content to the Federal Criminal Police Office if there are concrete indications that a criminal offense has been committed. Furthermore, child pornography content is to be better recorded. In future, disparagement of the memory of the deceased will also be considered unlawful. This is a reaction to the experience after the assassination of Kassel District President Walter Lubcke in 2019.

The list of offenses will be expanded to include "threat of dangerous bodily harm" and approval of crimes that have not yet been committed. Public insults are to be punishable by a maximum of two years' imprisonment. The offense of defamation and slander against persons in political life is also to apply to acts against persons up to the municipal level. Anti-Semitic motives of a perpetrator are to be given special consideration in the sentencing process.

Several speakers recalled the murder of Walter Lubcke, the anti-Semitic terrorist attack in Halle, the racist murders in Hanau and the high number of other right-wing extremist acts of violence.

Was right-wing extremism underestimated?

Jan-Marco Luczak (CDU) said that the brutalization on the net threatened the fundamental order of freedom. Benjamin Strasser (FDP) complained that right-wing extremism had been underestimated in recent years. At the same time, he expressed concerns, for example, about the obligation to hand over passwords. Niema Movassat (Die Linke) also criticized "data collection".

Further the law has a wrong beginning, since punishment aggravations alone do not keep offenders from the act. Renate Kunast (Greens) lacked an overall strategy that included prevention, victim protection and counseling centers, for example. She also complained that "masses of user data" were given to the BKA without legal examination.

Stephan Brandner (AfD) accused the law of using terms such as hate and incitement to adopt the language of the GDR and massively restrict freedom of expression in Germany.

The European Court of Human Rights has rejected the complaint of a woman who wanted to have a child conceived with the sperm of her deceased son. Professor Andreas praise Hudepohl of the German ethics advice can only confirm the prohibition.

Interviewer: This woman's son had been desperate to have a child before he died, and she now wanted to fulfill his last wish, this mother said. Let's leave aside the controversial ie of artificial insemination without natural sexual intercourse. What speaks then from catholic view against it that now with its sperm a child is conceived?

Andreas Lob-Hudepohl (Professor of Theological Ethics and member of the German Ethics Council): One argument against this is that the right to reproductive autonomy is tied to someone who is alive and not already deceased. The second point against it: procreation is for the creation of new life for the sake of new life. And not to extend oneself, so to speak, biologically or genetically into the future. It's a question of the best interests of the child and not a question of what parents want.

Interviewer: In Germany there is an embryo protection law. That expressly prohibits fertilization with sperm from a deceased person. But also against this there were already complaints. It is also said that it is not compatible with interception on this point because it violates personal rights. What is your assessment of this?

Praise-Hudepohl: I still think that the embryo protection law is right. And that's because it can no longer affect the personal rights of the deceased person. The deceased is deceased, and the right to reproduction is a right of a living person, who is also still a legal entity.

Interviewer: The legal side has become clear in principle. What is the general reason why people want to have children even after death?? The idea has also somehow something spooky.

Lob-Hudepohl: Indeed. But the desire is not new at all, there is already almost an archetypal desire of people to biologically prolong their own life into eternity. But it is just not child welfare oriented. That is, the idea that I reproduce in order to give life and for the sake of the child is, of course, a modern idea. However, this should be in the foreground, especially from the perspective of Christian ethics. The extension of one's own biological life via my descendants or the securing of my gene pool to my descendants is a thought that is incompatible with the basic idea of individuality, the uniqueness of each human life from a perspective of Christianity.

There the promise of the eternal life is completely affirmed from another side and not about a biological component, so that I would like to perpetuate myself so to speak in my children's children. Descendants are used for one's own interests to perpetuate them, and I consider that a violation of the dignity of other human beings, who would be completely used in this way.

Interviewer: Has the discussion now ended with the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights, or does it go further??

Lob-Hudepohl: I suspect it will continue. In the context of reproductive medicine, completely new constellations and technical possibilities – the freezing of one's own sperm or the female egg for decades until a time when I can then perhaps activate it again. This is already not only under discussion, it is even practice in many countries, for example in Spain.

Reproductive medicine options will lead to much debate, including over embryo protection law. I think it is all the more important for us to focus on the central ideas of procreation. And that means new life, to beget for its own sake and not to satisfy our desires for some form of parenthood.

The interview was conducted by Martin Bornemeier.

The German Bishops' Conference wants to take stronger action against “spiritual abuse” in the church. Bishop Felix Genn advocated developing regulations and standards to recognize spiritual abuse.

When a pastor exploits religious needs of believers for his own goals, this often precedes sexual abuse, Bishop Felix Genn of Munster said Thursday in Leipzig at the start of a conference on the topic. Genn heads the Commission for Spiritual Vocations and Ecclesial Ministries of the Bishops' Conference.

Such abuse of the faithful's relationship with God also has “serious effects on the emotional and psychological state of people,” Genn stressed. Where clear responsibilities for the power and authority involved are not regulated in the various forms of spiritual direction, “the temptation to abuse is at least open,” the bishop acknowledged.

Genn calls for “openness and transparency”

Genn called on the church to prevent such abuse “through courses in good spiritual guidance and leadership”. In addition, it would have to review the associated regulations as well as develop standards to recognize spiritual abuse. Bishop called for “openness and transparency” with regard to the problem, saying otherwise it will “only get bigger, more vulnerable and more difficult”.

The host bishop of Dresden-Meissen, Heinrich Timmerevers, also warned to “look the painful reality in the eye”. With regard to the victims, he said: “Instead of promoting faith, faith in a loving God for these people was permanently damaged and thus our mission to be empathetic pastors was perverted by perpetrators from the ranks of the church.”At the same time, Timmerevers stressed that the commitment against spiritual abuse does not diminish the serious guilt of sexual abuse.

Conference in Dresden

The conference, which runs until Friday, is being organized by the Bishops' Conference together with the Diocese of Dresden-Meissen and the Saxon Medical Association. The event is entitled “Dangerous spiritual guides? Mental and spiritual abuse”.

In an exchange of experts from medicine, psychology, jurisprudence and churches, the event is intended to self-critically question the pastoral actions of the church, according to the bishops' conference. Based on an analysis of the phenomenon of mental and spiritual abuse, possibilities of prevention, reaction and reappraisal are discussed.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply