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crinkly_ears2012-06-20 08:36 pm
It's all fun and games 'til someone gets racist on Twitter...
Özil reports Twitter user for racial abuse
Real Madrid's German international Mesut Özil has reported the owner of a Twitter account for racial abuse, after the player was accused of not being German, according to the Bild newspaper.
The player's lawyer - Sascha Beumer – decided to take legal action after an unknown Twitter user posted messages using a private account during the Denmark-Germany game, stating that the player was not German and criticising his surname – which is of Muslim descent.
"Özil isn't German! A piece of paper doesn't change your origins", were the unknown user’s words in their first message, then adding that nobody with a non-German name should play in the German team.
Soon after, amid the protests - both online and offline -, Twitter decided to block the user's account from where the racist comments came from.
The Real Madrid player's father and agent - Mustafa Özil – totally agreed with his son's decision to report the incident: "it's important to say that you can't get away with saying things like that. This person has overstepped the mark".
Özil – who has played in all three of Germany's games so far in the 2012 Euros – was born in Gelsenkirchen (West Germany), while his parents come from Turkey. The Real Madrid player has always defended his German status.
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The stuff at Welt Online is worse - hell, BILD - who could forget Bild?? The most poisonous shit is published on that website.
Perhaps it was reported in the news? Perhaps it received one too many re-tweets? Perhaps it was an account that could be easily tracked down and shut for maximum publicity? Perhaps by over-reaching slightly - choosing a fairly innocuous statement (compared to the crap in Bild, for example) then they are setting a tidy precedent for far worse stuff. As if to say: this, and anything worse could be punished.
But yes - very odd. I don't know the hate-speech laws in Germany. In Canada this would be unlikely to get you banned - and we don't have complete free speech in Canada (common misconception is that we do). Hate speech is not protected, and hate-speech is a vaguely defined idea.
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As for laws in Germany, yes, some hate-speech, namely hate speech directed at entire segments of the populace, is not protected by our free speech laws. (I happen to rather like it that way.)
Let me quote the relevant wiki article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volksverhetzung):
For any hate speech to be punishable as Volksverhetzung, the law requires that said speech be "qualified for disturbing public peace" either by inciting "hatred against parts of the populace" or calling for "acts of violence or despotism against them", or by attacking "the human dignity of others by reviling, maliciously making contemptible or slandering parts of the populace".
I'm actually not sure the twitter statements, as reported, qualify as Volksverhetzung acc. to German law. Which is why I thought it a dumb move. If this goes to court and is rejected, it's basically like giving the rest of the stupid people a reason to party.
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Hee hee hee - I am perilously amused by this! The poor things!
Karmic balance!
Edit: In Canada nothing gets to trial. Everything is settled. 5% of cases make it to court. Is it the same in Germany? I know ZERO about a civil system.
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Given though that my dad's taken some customers' unpaid bills all the way to court plenty of times, I assume it's more than 5 percent over here?
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And some Crispy! I'm about to watch and we need Crispy to be good!
You love Ronaldo! You have great taste!
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