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Man in Denmark fined for hate speech on Facebook

A 39-year-old man from Aalborg must pay fines totalling 4,000 kroner for posting hate speech on his Facebook page in October 2017.

Published: 11 October 2018 15:32 CEST
Man in Denmark fined for hate speech on Facebook
File photo: AP Photo/Patrick Sison/Ritzau Scanpix

The man was found to have written “macabre and threatening words against Muslims”, local media Nordjyske reports.

The man denied having broken the law but admitted the writing the post, the court heard.

He said that the words were intended as part of a poem and should be considered a cultural input.

But Aalborg District Court found that the 39-year-old made threats of violence against Muslims, judging him guilty of breaching article 266b in Denmark’s criminal law code, also known as the 'racism clause'.

The punishment is ten fines totalling 4,000 kroner, which is too low a sentence to qualify for the right to appeal.

He will nonetheless consider applying to Denmark’s Appeals Permission Board (Procesbevillingsnævnet) for special dispensation to appeal against the ruling, his defence lawyer Dorte Kvist Knudsen told Nordjyske.

READ ALSO: Danish imam charged over call to kill Jews

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Facebook deletes virus conspiracy accounts in Germany

Facebook says it has deleted the accounts, pages and groups linked to virus conspiracy theorists, anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers in Germany who are vocal opponents of government restrictions to control the coronavirus pandemic.

Published: 17 September 2021 09:06 CEST
Updated: 17 September 2021 15:52 CEST
Facebook deletes virus conspiracy accounts in Germany
An anti-vaccination and anti-Covid demo in Berlin on August 28th. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Christophe Gateau

With just 10 days to go before Germany’s parliamentary elections – where the handling of the pandemic by Angela Merkel’s goverment will come under scrutiny – Facebook said it had “removed a network of Facebook and Instagram accounts” linked to the so-called “Querdenker” or Lateral Thinker movement.

The pages posted “harmful health misinformation, hate speech and incitement to violence”, the social media giant said in a statement.

It said that the people behind the pages “used authentic and duplicate accounts to post and amplify violating content, primarily focused on promoting the conspiracy that the German government’s Covid-19 restrictions are part of a larger plan to strip citizens of their freedoms and basic rights.”

The “Querdenker” movement, which is already under surveillance by Germany’s intelligence services, likes to portray itself as the mouthpiece of opponents
of the government’s coronavirus restrictions, organising rallies around the country that have drawn crowds of several thousands.

READ ALSO: Germany’s spy agency to monitor ‘Querdenker’ Covid sceptics

It loosely groups together activists from both the far-right and far-left of the political spectrum, conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers. And some of their rallies have descended into violence.

Social media platforms regularly face accusations that they help propagate misinformation and disinformation, particularly with regard to the pandemic and vaccines.

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