A Sunday episode of 60 Minutes highlighted repressive German hate speech laws that have led to the arrests of citizens for posting speech deemed false or “hateful,” such as “racist” cartoons or “fake quotes.”
CBS opened with footage of six state police officers raiding a suspect’s home at 6 a.m. and seizing his laptop and cellphone for “posting a racist cartoon online,” as “more than 50 similar raids” simultaneously played out across Germany, according to the news outlet.
Three German prosecutors explained that hate speech laws target far more than violent threats. “Malicious gossip” and “insults” are deemed hate speech – both in person and online – and “fake quotes” are illegal as well, under the assumption that the government is the arbiter of truth.
Those found breaking these laws usually face steep fines and sometimes lose their personal devices, including cell phones and laptops. Repeat offenders are threatened with jail time. One prosecutor, Frank-Michael Laue, noted that the seizure of personal devices is considered even worse than the fine.
Laue, who leads the Lower Saxony prosecution unit, told Alfonsi they work on “about 3,500 cases per year” and receive “hundreds of tips a month from police, watchdog groups and victims.”
Germany’s law against insults traces back 154 years with origins in an 1871 law. Prosecutions against offenders took on teeth in “a precedent-setting 1995 ruling” in which a Schwaebisch Hall court awarded a man 460 euros over “racist comments” against his black wife, according to the Los Angeles Times.
CBS correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi also noted that it’s illegal in Germany to display Nazi symbolism, such as a Swastika, or to deny the Holocaust, as it has been for 40 years.
Remarkably, CBS appeared to portray German speech laws in a sympathetic light. No critics of the laws were interviewed, and the anti-free speech laws were framed as attempting to “bring civility” to the internet.
In a statement of stunning irony, Josephine Ballon, a CEO of HateAid, lamented to Alfonsi that half of Germany’s internet users “are afraid to express their political opinion, and they rarely participate in public debates online anymore.”
Instead of pointing to the country’s chilling anti-free speech laws, Ballon cited fear that they will be attacked online. Her organization is dedicated to supporting victims of online “hate speech.”
Critics consider Germany’s current laws to be a violation of human rights and acknowledge the role it plays in quashing public discourse. U.S. Vice President JD Vance, who rebuked Europe a few days ago at the Munich Security Conference for their free speech crackdown, reposted the 60 Minutes episode to X on Monday morning, denouncing the laws as “Orwellian.”
Insulting someone is not a crime, and criminalizing speech is going to put real strain on European-US relationships.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) February 17, 2025
This is Orwellian, and everyone in Europe and the US must reject this lunacy. https://t.co/WZSifyDWMr
Germany has even overstepped its already-oppressive laws by conducting sweeping arrests of protesters, even of those calling for peace.
German-Israeli activist Iris Hefets told Al Jazeera last year how she was arrested twice for holding a sign that read, “As a Jew and Israeli, stop the genocide in Gaza.” The first time, she was released shortly after, and the second time, she was charged with “inciting racial hatred.” The charge was later dropped. She was arrested a third time for holding a sign that read, “Zionism kills.” She was again released, but her sign was then confiscated.
A former air force programmer remarked on X that “Germany has lost its mind,” screen-shotting a story about the country’s conviction of a woman who insulted a gang rapist and outrageously was sentenced to a weekend in jail while the gang rapist spent no time in prison due to his age.
Germany is arresting people for ‘racist’ cartoons and ‘fake quotes’: 60 Minutes report – LifeSite