The German government has approved a draft law to fight extremism and hate crimes online, reforming the existing Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG). Under the proposed legislation, social networks would be obliged to report certain criminal content flagged through user complaints or removed from the platforms to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) to take action. Operators of social networks would be obliged to communicate IP addresses and port numbers of the suspect users to the BKA.
According to the proposed law, in particular death threats and sedition should be reported to the criminal authority. Internet platforms would be required to establish an adequate system to suspected report crimes, or risk a fine. There would also be an obligation to identify the suspects and secure potential evidence. The Criminal Code (Strafprozessordnung) would be update to clarify that data can be collected on telemedia services under the same conditions as telecommunications services, and telemedia services would be subject to the same obligations as telecommunications services.
