Berlin to Combat Digital Violence: New Law Aims for Faster Content Removal and Stronger Penalties
Berlin, March 6 – The German government is set to introduce new legislation to combat digital violence, with a focus on expediting the removal of harmful content and ensuring effective punishment for offenders. Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig is expected to present a draft bill this spring. This initiative addresses a growing concern, particularly for women and young people who are disproportionately affected by cyberbullying and cyberstalking.
Defining Digital Violence: A Spectrum of Online Harassment
Digital violence encompasses all forms of harassment, threats, or abuse perpetrated through digital technologies or media. This includes activities on the internet, social networks, messenger services, email, and other digital platforms. The primary goal of digital violence is often to expose or intimidate victims.
Beyond hate speech and discriminatory remarks, digital violence includes a range of harmful acts:
- Doxing: The unauthorized online publication of private data, such as home addresses or phone numbers.
- Unwanted sexually explicit messages: Messages containing sexual content sent without consent.
- Digital surveillance: Monitoring individuals’ activities or locations through digital means.
- Deepfakes: Manipulated or AI-generated images, audio, or videos designed to deceive.
- Cyberbullying: Repeated aggressive behavior intended to harm another person, carried out through electronic means.
- Cyberstalking: Persistent and unwanted online contact that causes fear or distress.
A common manifestation of digital violence is the digital publication of private nude images by vengeful ex-partners.
The Threat of Deepfakes: AI-Generated Deception
Deepfakes are sophisticated manipulated or AI-generated images, audio, or videos that appear deceptively real. For instance, a deepfake video could depict a politician making statements they never uttered. Sexualized deepfakes involve manipulated recordings that portray individuals in pornographic scenes without their consent. The majority of victims of these fabricated contents are women, often public figures.
Doxing: Exposing Private Information Online
Doxing refers to the unauthorized online release of private information, such as an individual’s home address or telephone number. Depending on the context, this can impose significant distress and danger on the victims.
Cyberstalking: Digital Surveillance and Harassment
Cyberstalking often involves the unauthorized installation of an app on a victim’s phone to monitor location data. Another method includes secretly placing a small Bluetooth tracking device in a victim’s belongings, leading to unsettling encounters where the perpetrator seemingly coincidentally appears wherever the victim is. Unlike some other forms of digital violence, cyberstalking often requires a pre-existing relationship, with partners and ex-partners being common perpetrators.
Addressing Voyeuristic Images: Gaps in Current Legislation
Current laws already prohibit filming or photographing individuals in certain intimate situations, such as in their homes or changing rooms. Victims of secretly recorded intimate situations can invoke their right to their own image and demand the deletion of such recordings. However, a recent high-profile case involving two young women filmed in a sauna without their consent, where the perpetrator faced no consequences, has highlighted potential shortcomings in existing regulations.
The Impact on Victims: Overwhelmed and Traumatized
Müserref Tanriverdi from the German Institute for Human Rights (Dimr) notes that victims are often overwhelmed by the rapid spread of private or fake images online, which can escalate significantly within hours. Additionally, perpetrators frequently use tools that make them difficult to identify. Such acts can have severe psychological consequences for those affected.
Victim Empowerment: Legal Avenues and Support
Insult and defamation are punishable offenses, even online, though identifying perpetrators can be challenging. Extortion with intimate photos (sextortion) is also illegal. Victims can file a complaint, secure evidence, and seek support from counseling centers like Hate Aid.
Platform operators are required to provide easily accessible reporting channels for digital violence. However, for content that is not as overtly illegal as incitement to hatred, rapid deletion is often not guaranteed.
Government’s Reform Plans: Closing Legal Loopholes
Justice Minister Hubig has announced a draft law against digital violence. “Victims must be able to easily assert their rights and quickly achieve the cessation of the dissemination of such content,” Hubig told the German Press Agency. To better combat deepfakes, digital voyeurism, and other forms of image-based digital violence, she also aims to close existing loopholes in criminal law, particularly concerning pornographic deepfaked content and the creation of voyeuristic recordings in public spaces. She plans to present concrete proposals with the draft bill soon.
Recommendations for Further Action: Beyond Penalties
The German Institute for Human Rights emphasizes the need for adequate financial support for counseling centers, especially those assisting women in securing evidence. The institute also highlights the need for improved technological knowledge among some police and public prosecutor officials, advocating for training measures. “Stricter penalties alone are not enough,” states Tanriverdi.
Marcel Emmerich, domestic policy spokesman for the Green Party parliamentary group, views digital violence as a tool to intimidate and exclude individuals from public discourse. He asserts, “Debate spaces on social media platforms only foster a democratic culture of opinion when citizens can defend themselves against attacks in the digital realm.”
Further news on this topic will be provided as the legislative process unfolds.
