In their contribution to a collection of papers by The Hague Program for Cyber Norms and Leiden University, Prof. Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann and Martin Fertmann explain how disinformation about COVID-19 is addressed in Germany and what legal questions arise in this context.
Download the collection here (PDF)
Abstract
Throughout the pandemic, Germany has taken a careful stance in responding to influence operations. Historically, it is not disinformation but hate speech that has taken the front and center position in the German platform regulation discourse. The notion that the process of political opinion formation is supposed to be free from state intervention (Staatsferne des Meinungsbildungsprozesses) is valued as a key element of Germany’s constitutional order, coupled with clear rules against specific types of serious antisemitic and other qualified hate speech and dehumanising expressions. Outside of illegal expressions, too large an influence of domestic authorities on the process of negotiating the rules of information behaviour is viewed as an even greater risk to the country’s liberal democracy than the risks associated with foreign influence operations.
Kettemann, M. C.; Fertmann, M. (2021): Germany: Much Ado about Little. In: Vériter, S.; Kaminska, M.; Broeders, D.; Koops, J. (eds.): Responding to the COVID-19 ‘Infodemic’: National Countermeasures to Information Influence in Europe (The Hague: The Hague Program for Cyber Norms. December 2021), pp. 27-32, https://www.thehaguecybernorms.nl/research-and-publication-posts/responding-to-the-covid-19-infodemic-national-countermeasures-against-information-influence-in-europe.
