Sunday, February 24, 2019

Joana Cotar, January 18, 2019, Internet Law Enforcement


Joana Cotar
Internet Law Enforcement
German Bundestag, January 18, 2019, Plenarprotokoll 19/74, pp. 8727-8728

[Joana Cotar is an Alternative für Deutschland Bundestag member and businesswoman from the central German state of Hessen. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and Justice Minister Katarina Barley are members of the SPD. This is the latest of a series of Bundestag speeches delivered by Cotar calling for repeal of the NetzDG, an internet law enforcement measure enacted shortly before the AfD’s entry into the Bundestag in the autumn of 2017.] 

Right honorable Herr President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen. 

Over a year of the NetzDG, over a year of the combat against freedom of opinion, over a year of countless legitimate and unjustly deleted posts and blocked users and over a year in which the real hatred and libel in the social media has not been reduced.  

On 30 June 2017, here in the Bundestag then Justice Minister Heiko Maas and colleagues of the old parties turned over to international concerns a core duty of the state. Judges now no longer decide the illegality of a post and freedom of opinion, but employees of Facebook and Co. – without legal training; for that, suffices often one’s own agenda or simple whim. 

            Thomas Heilmann (CDU/CSU): How can one relate such idiocy? That is rubbish. 

As has been exposed in reports, the federal government has also with the NetzDG responded to demands of Iran and China and accepted recommendations from both of these countries. 

            Volker Ulrich (CDU/CSU): That is such idiocy! 

They themselves have admitted that to the UN human rights council. Iran and China, droll models for us of freedom of opinion, ladies and gentlemen. 

Not for nothing has the UN special advisor for freedom of opinion, David Kaye, now renewed his criticism of the NetzDG. With this law, Germany ha been massively disgraced and private firms made judges of content. It is precisely that that we of the AfD have always criticized, also here in the Bundestag. 

            Thomas Heilmann (CDU/CSU): All of your predictions have not occurred… 

Already in a bill introduced in December 2017, we required the unconditional repeal of the NetzDG. 

            Carsten Müller (CDU/CSU): False then, false now…

The old party colleagues rejected it. Indeed, the SPD and Union continue to find this law to have been a really good idea. 

            Thomas Heilmann (CDU/CSU): Ten thousand deletions leading to 700 decrees. 

The cost for the prosecutorial officials introduced by the NetzDG is figured at 3.7 million euros a year. The federal government maintained that the high staffing requirement was unconditionally necessary to deal with approximately 25,000 complaints and 500 compensatory proceedings. However, as has been brought out by a minor inquiry of the AfD delegation, it was already clear after three quarters of a year that the number of complaints was 50 times less than the estimates of the Ministry for Justice and Consumer Protection. 

            Thomas Heilmann (CDU/CSU): Yes, simply because the law is better than you
            say. 

Since enactment of the law, not a single compensatory fine has been ordered against a social network. Besides, the office personnel for processing these few complaints will not be reduced by the ministry now led by Katarina Barley. It is simply maintained that the processing of these cases has been unexpectedly difficult. It’s only the taxpayers’ money; that can be easily thrown out the window. The socialists have decades of experience in that. 

            Marianne Schieder (SPD): Such nonsense! 

The transparency report on social media ordered by the federal office for justice in July 2018 is still being evaluated. Nevertheless, it can stated that accounts were rarely cancelled due to the NetzDG but mostly on grounds of community standards. The law is thus inefficient, expensive, useless and unconstitutional. 

Now the Greens present a motion with which they want to improve the law. I must smile a little; since, the Greens in recent weeks have indeed shown that they cannot deal with the social media. The leader of the Greens, Robert Habeck, has left Twitter and Facebook, not because he eventually took responsibility for his own failures but because Twitter itself is plainly aggressive and evil. The Green delegation leader Katharina Schulze turned off the comments function on her profile because she cannot deal with justifiable criticism. Yet, according to the Greens’ own statements, democracy, freedom and openness are receding in the parliament. Exactly my feelings, ladies and gentlemen. 

But back to your motion. In 26 points you require improvement of the NetzDG: user-friendly report tools, clearing positions, research on hate-speech operations, disinformation and social bots, a put-back procedure, creation of an additional regulatory position, a police-like internet watch, and, and and. Granted, the motion contains points which we of the AfD could vote for. But in our view, re-doctoring will not fix a law completely ill-advised from the beginning. Just the opposite. It makes everything more complicated. There are countless regulations and directions, more bureaucracy, more costs for the citizen – and all that for one law, which means one thing: it must go! 

In Germany, law enforcement is in the hands of the public courts and it should remain there. The AfD therefore will not vote for this motion and re-commits itself to freedom of opinion, internet freedom  and the unconditional repeal of the NetzDG. Many thanks.


[Translated by Todd Martin]