Minister defends law after reproach censorship AfD (2)

berlin - German Justice Minister Heiko Maas has defended the new law against fake news and on social media after a tweet from an AfD politician has been removed and the account has been temporarily blocked. In front of Bild, Maas says that calls for murder, threats, insults, incitement to hatred and denial of the Holocaust do not fall under freedom of speech, but rather an attack on those of others.

Maas does not want to know anything about censorship, according to the right-wing populist party AfD. 'Freedom of speech also protects ugly and offensive statements,' says Maas, who draws a line somewhere. In Germany, a law has been in effect since this year requiring social media such as Facebook and Twitter to delete messages within 24 hours with clearly punishable content.

A tweet from Beatrix von Storch, vice-chairman of the AfD was recently removed by Twitter. She was angry because the police in Cologne spread information about past New Year's Eve in various languages, including Arabic. 'What on earth is going on in our country?' Von Storch asked, among other things. 'Do you think so to calm down that barbaric, Muslim, gang-ridden men's hordant?'

Meanwhile hundreds of Germans have filed a complaint against Von Storch. The Cologne police also filed a complaint. The New Year 2015/2016 in Cologne got out of hand when young men bothered women and girls in the center on a large scale.