In the wake of the attack in Solingen and the shooting in Munich, German Green MP Anton Hofreiter is calling for blanket censorship after news story after news story shows the damaging effects of his open borders ideology.
“One of the biggest problems of extremism is online radicalization,” he told the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper. In case of doubt, he said authorities must also be prepared to block the social media platform X.
“We must stop the spread of anti-human and anti-constitutional content on the internet,” demanded Hofreiter, who serves as the chairman of the European Affairs Committee in the Bundestag. Violations of applicable law must be punished consistently. With regard to social networks, this means that they “will be blocked if necessary,” said the Green politician. This would also include the X platform owned by Elon Musk, which the left views as an imminent threat due to its emphasis on free speech, according to Frankfurter Rundschau.
Green party policies have helped fuel a massive rise in crime and terrorism offenses, with numerous Islamic attacks over the last months, along with a general explosion in criminal violence due to mass immigration. However, Europe’s leftists want to severely restrict such information from reaching the public, which may harm their electoral prospects.
Hofreiter is now calling for “virtual agents” to police speech on social networks.
Hofreiter says the state, which must take tough action, should not close itself off to new technologies. Specifically, Hofreiter suggested “virtual agents” which, for example, screen groups on Telegram to identify possible criminals.
Both platforms, X and Telegram, are accused of not taking sufficient action against “hate speech.” Already at the EU level, Thierry Breton, the commissioner for the internal market of the European Union, has threatened to block X in the EU.
Telegram is also accused of failing to cooperate with law enforcement authorities in the fight against drug trafficking, fraud and child abuse.
Meanwhile, a dispute is raging between X and the European Commission over the spread of “hate speech and misinformation.” Brussels is planning to impose heavy fines on Musk if he does not moderate content more strongly. Musk accuses the EU of wanting to outright censor political speech they do not like. The American describes himself as an advocate of absolute freedom of expression.
