Police State: German Police Carry Out Raids Against Dozens Suspected Of Posting ‘Misogynistic Hate Speech’ Online

The following report is by the Associated Press, published on March 7th, 2024:

German law enforcement authorities on Thursday carried out raids across Germany against people suspected of posting misogynistic hate speech on the internet as part of of a coordinated push to shine the spotlight on online violence against women.

Police raided homes and interrogated 45 suspects in 11 states early Thursday. None of the suspects were detained, Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office said in a statement. Another 37 suspects were already searched and interrogated in previous weeks and months.

The raids were part of a “combating misogyny on the internet” day of action, which comes one day before International’s Women’s Day.

“We are observing how online platforms are increasingly becoming the scene of hate, harassment and discrimination, also targeting especially women,” said Holger Muench, the head of Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office.

Today’s day of action makes it clear: we consciously go into the spaces of hate, identify acts and perpetrators, take them out of anonymity and bring them to accountability.

Muench said the initiative grew out of a joint project by investigators and prosecutors two years ago who worked “intensively on the prosecution of misogyny online.”

Before Thursday’s raids, investigators had been working for a long time to identify alleged perpetrators hiding behind the anonymity offered by the internet.

In Germany, sweeping slurs against women can be punishable as incitement to hatred.

In preparation for the raids, authorities scoured the internet for posts that potentially broke anti-misogyny laws and attempted to identify the authors. The names of the suspects will then be forwarded to the public prosecutor’s offices in the states where they live in order to decide whether to proceed or not with criminal prosecution…