Apparently there’s an issue with some instances banning users for criticizing authoritarian governments. Is lemmy.world a safe place to criticize governments?
Apparently there’s an issue with some instances banning users for criticizing authoritarian governments. Is lemmy.world a safe place to criticize governments?
Doesn’t Germany have laws against certain hate speech? Would those laws apply to lemmy.world and it’s hosted content?
[IANAL] In Germany only specific types of hate speech are criminal. These are:
Other forms of hate speech might be cause for civil suits or may oblige the platform provider to remove your speech, but do not rise to a criminal offence.
Again: I am not a lawyer.
Also this only really applies to German citizens. We saw a recent study in this when a Ukrainian diplomat went on a German podcast and denied part of the Holocaust, and no criminal proceeding followed (consistent with established law). I think the platform itself was fine because the host firmly pushed back on it with historical evidence instead of idly platforming him, though he was still allowed to express his views to his content.
You can’t cite a diplomat not being punished as an example of a law only applying to German citizens.
Diplomats almost always have extra protections compared to regular residents.
Sorry, on reflection I realize “German citizens and denizens” would be a more accurate grouping. From what I’ve read of the incident, diplomatic immunity was never cited as the reason he wasn’t charged, though I readily admit him being a diplomat makes it an inelegant example. It’s just the main time I remember offhand a non-German in Germany doing Holocaust denial, since people usually don’t do that.