As a German, I currently don’t see any meaningful censorship via legislation. That said I do see censorship in practicality via public opinion, shaming and hate against you if you speak out against "mainstream" opinion. That said, a lot of the institutions listed here are actually, at least in principle, made to conquer that, not make it worse. And even if I don’t really see them succeeding at making it better I also don’t see them making it worse…
It should be alarming how pervasive these efforts have become, especially given Germany's history. There's a near-total lack of public awareness and media opposition on... a number of issues in Germany. Then again, there's probably a lot of Germans who love this.
It is not pervasive. The chart the report shows essentially is a random map of organizations in Germany who are involved in any way with public speech.
Like claiming the FBI is involved with censoring Americans because it is their job to seize certain illegal websites.
I don't know about their methodology, but as a German, I get the feeling that the project is rather vague.
For example, I would have liked to see more specifics on what they define as censorship in terms of scope.
Mainstream discourse in Germany is very conservative when it comes to defining censorship. They would hardly name de-ranking, deplatforming, intimidation, exclusion from the financial system, or even full control of information by private organizations as censorship. Government-enacted media bans, such as the Commission banning Russian state media, are rarely viewed as censorship by Germans. ( https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-rt-sputnik-illegal-eu... )
I'm not trying to make a value statement in one direction or the other, but if your communication product addresses a market or seeks to tie into public discourse, it should be in touch with its concepts.
Weird to read something from an unknown (to me) organization which claims censorship in Germany when I as a German can't recall any instances in the last thirty years which I would consider censored in Germany.
Like I mean yes Doom was censored as a game due to gore/violence. But what else?
Have to check the report.
But the thing is: Censorship is not the issue in Germany. Disinformation is. We get too much bullshit information unhindered which causes chaos.
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After a short skim of the report. It takes the angle that Germany's attempt to fight online hatespeech and disinformation would stifle speech and takes concern with paltry sums such as 30-50m spend annually to fight hate speech online. It all sounds pretty ridiculous to me when you consider that Cambridge Analytica doesn't even appear in the report as one of the wake-up calls to European countries that social media has become weaponized to attack democracies and influence elections. This isn't about free speech for Germans in Germany but how can we can keep Chinese interest through TikTok, Russian propaganda through X and comment sections and other foreign influences at bay?
I mostly agree with your points, but there’s one form of censorship that exists in Germany today: internet censorship driven by the commercial interests of right holders and implemented by the major internet service providers. In short: illegal streaming sites can be blocked for access.
Some people might disagree that it isn’t a form of censorship, but it fits the bill: blocking access to information on the sole discretion of 3rd party pursuing its own interests.
Honestly? Good. We can't just let propagandists from Russia or anywhere else ruin our democracies. When I look in comment sections online on mass platforms (think Facebook, Instagram, etc.) the amount of hate is unreal. The sheer quantity doesn't look organic at all. Even though these opinions are certainly shared by many real people, I suspect a lot of it is bots and propaganda. A bit of modern McCarthyism might be necessary.
A lot of people argue today that he was basically correct about Communist infiltration at high levels of the US state department, and the reason we generally think of him as a villain today is because those Communist sympathizers won a political conflict against him and then other Communist sympathizers in American culture-making industries won a cultural conflict against him, which among other consequences is the reason I was taught The Crucible in high school.
Anyway, claims that some group of people are propagandists or that some particular messaging is hateful or fake or propaganda are themselves a type of propaganda. There's no way to evaluate any meta-claim about how we ought to interpret the memes we encounter in society without an object-level understanding of what those memes actually are, which I think is one of the best arguments in favor of radical anti-censorship ideologies.
[+] [-] JannThomas|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] oezi|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] mosst|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] oezi|4 months ago|reply
Like claiming the FBI is involved with censoring Americans because it is their job to seize certain illegal websites.
[+] [-] fwn|4 months ago|reply
For example, I would have liked to see more specifics on what they define as censorship in terms of scope.
Mainstream discourse in Germany is very conservative when it comes to defining censorship. They would hardly name de-ranking, deplatforming, intimidation, exclusion from the financial system, or even full control of information by private organizations as censorship. Government-enacted media bans, such as the Commission banning Russian state media, are rarely viewed as censorship by Germans. ( https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-rt-sputnik-illegal-eu... )
I'm not trying to make a value statement in one direction or the other, but if your communication product addresses a market or seeks to tie into public discourse, it should be in touch with its concepts.
[+] [-] oezi|4 months ago|reply
Like I mean yes Doom was censored as a game due to gore/violence. But what else?
Have to check the report.
But the thing is: Censorship is not the issue in Germany. Disinformation is. We get too much bullshit information unhindered which causes chaos.
--
After a short skim of the report. It takes the angle that Germany's attempt to fight online hatespeech and disinformation would stifle speech and takes concern with paltry sums such as 30-50m spend annually to fight hate speech online. It all sounds pretty ridiculous to me when you consider that Cambridge Analytica doesn't even appear in the report as one of the wake-up calls to European countries that social media has become weaponized to attack democracies and influence elections. This isn't about free speech for Germans in Germany but how can we can keep Chinese interest through TikTok, Russian propaganda through X and comment sections and other foreign influences at bay?
[+] [-] viktorcode|4 months ago|reply
Some people might disagree that it isn’t a form of censorship, but it fits the bill: blocking access to information on the sole discretion of 3rd party pursuing its own interests.
[+] [-] IlikeKitties|4 months ago|reply
> 1 Pimmel Affäre
> Schwachkopf Affäre
Oder zuletzt
> https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/baden-wuerttemberg/suedbaden/a... and last but not least:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bMzFDpfDwc
Germany is very much implementing censorship by chilling effect.
[+] [-] tormeh|4 months ago|reply
[+] [-] JuniperMesos|4 months ago|reply
Anyway, claims that some group of people are propagandists or that some particular messaging is hateful or fake or propaganda are themselves a type of propaganda. There's no way to evaluate any meta-claim about how we ought to interpret the memes we encounter in society without an object-level understanding of what those memes actually are, which I think is one of the best arguments in favor of radical anti-censorship ideologies.
[+] [-] IlikeKitties|4 months ago|reply
I can't believe I have to write this: McCarthyism was a BAD thing that caused harm to a lot of people and did NOTHING to preserve liberty and freedom.
[+] [-] sedlich|4 months ago|reply