Feddit.org announced today that they are changing their rules to match German law despite their server not being hosted in Germany.
Feddit.org now bans
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The sentence “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”
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Comparing Israel to the Nazis
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Calls to end Zionism
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Calling for the dissolution of Israel
And much more. The full original post can be found here, or
Click here for full text of original post:
Hi.
In the past few days, discontent regarding mod decisions in this community has been brewing, particularly when it comes to comments on Palestine, Israel, and Israeli politics and actions. There are also misunderstandings regarding mod intention and German law. We hope to clear that up with this post.
While the servers of feddit.org are in Austria, most of the mods of this community as well as admins of this server live in Germany. Speaking of, our server admins have also posted a write-up on the same topic.
And with that, let’s go:
In Germany, antisemitism is specifically sanctioned in German criminal law, both for speech and as a motivation for other criminal behavior. In addition, Germany seeks to protect the Jewish state of Israel (the so-called “Reason of State” introduced in 2008) and thus verges toward protecting Zionism as well. Certain criticism of Israel/Israelis is also categorized as “Israel-related antisemitism”.
Since criminal law is involved, enforcement can mean things like police raids and device confiscations. After such police action, it does not really matter if it was appropriate or if cases are dropped or never charged: The damage is done. All told, it’s not that fun.
There is also no point in engaging in discussions about the veracity of statements that could get us into legal trouble. In addition, we believe that you can express most opinions without breaking rules.
If your comment contains the following, it will be removed from this community:
- Calling for the dissolution of Israel, or calling for a one-state solution without specifying equal rights for all people; Jewish in particular.
- Calling for a destruction, annihilation, an end of all Zionism or the like.
- Equating Israeli actions and (historical) Nazism.
- The slogan “from the river…”
- Endorsement of or justifications for Hamas or Hezbollah, or slogans or graphics positively referring to these organizations. These are considered terrorist organizations in Germany.
- … and obviously: Any of the common antisemitic tropes or calls to violence against Jews or Israelis
Comments will not be removed for the following:
- Denouncing genocide.
- Denouncing Israeli war crimes.
- Criticizing Zionism as an ideology or political movement.
- Referring to the current Israeli government as “criminal,” “expansionist,” or “far-right”.
If your comment is removed nonetheless, these are not the reason. I’d also like to stress that this community was never a free-speech-absolutist zone: It is a (usually lightly) moderated community. There may also be times when bans go too far. In such cases, please DM the @[email protected] account (which all mods have access to).
To help you understand why, I'll leave an assortment of sources here (translations via DeepL).
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Berlin in mid-May [2024] around 6 o’clock in the morning. A loud, continuous “banging” against the apartment door wakes student Alina T. from her sleep. […] When her husband opens the door, several LKA officers, two employees of the district office and the SEK “storm” past him into the apartment. Puzzled, he looks at the search warrant. […] The background to this was a Facebook entry in the student’s profile: "From the river […]
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In November 2023, the Federal Ministry of the Interior and for Home Affairs also issued a prohibition order against Hamas.[60] According to the order, “the slogan ‘From the River to the Sea’ (in German or other languages)” is a distinguishing mark of Hamas[61]. […] the current legal situation [regarding “Denial of Israel’s right to exist”] is - contrary to what the statements of the Federal Ministry of Justice suggest[63] - anything but clear. Whether incitements to eliminate the State of Israel are prosecuted depends on the respective legal opinion and the prosecution will of the respective public prosecutor’s office.
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Press release from the previous government:
In this context, Section 111 StGB, which covers public incitement to commit crimes, may also be relevant. Incitement to extinguish Israel’s existence by force may be punishable under this provision. The same applies to calls to publicly display the Hamas flag. If Hamas attacks are publicly cheered and celebrated, this may also be punishable. This means that people who cheer on Hamas’s actions or publicly express their sympathy with the attacks may constitute the criminal offence of “approval of criminal acts” under Section 140 of the German Criminal Code (StGB).
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In connection with the controversial Palestine Congress in Berlin, the German authorities have also imposed an entry ban on former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. “In order to prevent antisemitic and anti-Israel propaganda at the event”, several entry bans have been issued, the news agency AFP learned from security sources on Sunday. One of these concerned Varoufakis. (Notably, Varoufakis would have spoken about one-state solutions …)
federal reverse (on behalf of the mods of !europe)
Note that calling for Zimbabwe/South Africa style change to Israel is also against the rule, as they made it clear in the comments that any calls for reform that include violence against Israel are forbidden.
Also no, Rhodesia does not still exist, that’s an absurd thing to say.
It is not forbidden, you are conflating vocal support for terrorist organisations with a terrible human rights record, with a general ban to discuss different forms of resitances against unjust treatment of Palestinians.
After 15 years of civil war, a peace agreement was signed in Rhodesia, and in a following election Robert Mugabe was elected new head of state and the name was changed to Zimbabwe (among other constitutional changes).
The racist shit bag white supremecists that made up the Rhodesian government lost a civil war because they thought their skin color made them better fighters.
They were wrong.
Describing losing a civil war as continuity of government, especially for the pathetically inadequate white supremecists that made up Rhodesia’s ruling class, would only be done by another disgusting racist shit bag.
Get the fuck off of here you fucking racist.
Tagging you with ‘Rhodesia lover’
You are competely dellusional. I simply pointed out that according to international law Zimbabwe is the legal succesor state to Rhodesia and that formally there was a transition of government.
I am absolutely on your side that Rhodesia was a racist shit apartheit state, but facts are facts…
You are absolutely not “just pointing out” that
It explicitly is. Stop lying.
The revolutions in Zimbabwe were both performed by organizations that their opponents labeled as terrorists, because crackers label all violent opposition to them terrorism. Nelson Mandela was a terrorist. You have just laid out exactly a general ban to discuss any non-peaceful resistance for Palestine, because that is terrorism, and you have indisputably confirmed that calling for South Africa or Zimbabwe style resistance is 100% against the rules.
And trying to claim that Zimbabwe is actually a continuation of the white supremacist British colony that was Rhodesia is the most racist fucking thing I’ve heard in a long time, and not surprising coming from a pro-fascist like yourself.
You need to learn to read what is actually written, and not just imagine some lala land interpretation that has nothing to do with reality.
And Zimbabwe is legally the continuation of the Rhodesian state, I didn’t claim anything else and please don’t insult others as racist just because you don’t understand what they are saying.
Right back at you, given you’re the one not reading whats actually written and imagining some lala land interpretation that has nothing to do with reality. But go on, keep lying. Show everyone how dishonest you fascist dogs are.
So calling for a violent overthrown of the Israeli government by indigenous Palestinians, recreating it as Palestinian state named Palestine that fully rebukes the colonialist settler state it replaces, that would be within the rules then? Because that’s what happened in Zimbabwe.
Everyone understands what you’re saying, racist, you’re not as sneaky as you think.
You seriously need to read up on the history of Zimbabwe because that is not what happened.
Oh fuck off. That’s exactly what happened, and you know it. At this point you’re just lying through your teeth.
You live in some lala land that has no resemblence to reality.
The only person here in LA LA land is the racist filth trying to equate Rhodesia with Zimbabwe.
You’re a fucking disgusting racist. You’re as pathetically delusional to your own superiority as the Rhodesian elites were.
When you have no argument, just endlessly scream “NO! NO! YOU CAN’T READ!”
Lying fascist.