Germany: Social media accounts of far-right politician blocked after anti-Muslim remarks
Germany's far-right AfD leader's twitter handle was blocked after her anti-Muslim remarks. Photo: DP
(Web Desk) – A police investigation is undergoing after a German politician tweeted inflammatory anti-Muslim comments on the eve of the New Year.
Twitter account of Deputy leader of Germany’s far-right AfD party, Beatrix von Storch, was suspended on Monday following anti-Muslim remarks.
Von Storch accused Cologne police for assuaging, “barbaric, gang-raping Muslim hordes of men” after the official twitter handle of Cologne police tweeted new year wishes in Arabic, reported the BBC.
In response to Storch’s tweet, Twitter suspended her account for 12 hours, stating that her comments breached the site’s community standards. Storch posted the same comment on Facebook and her account was blocked from the social media website for the same reasons of provocation against Muslims.
Police in Cologne in a statement to a German local magazine said that they are investigating if the member of the parliament has committed a criminal offense, but also stressed that it was a normal procedure.
Germany has recently enacted new hate speech laws, which will enforce fines on social media sites, which do not remove “obviously illegal” posts. Storch’s party defended her comments on the social media claiming that the removal of her statement was a form of censorship.
Alice Weidel, AfD’s leader wrote on Facebook that authorities were submitting to “imported, marauding, groping, abusive, knife-stabbing migrant mobs”.
Germany’s city Cologne came under controversy when countless women reported sexual assaults and gang assaults over New Year in 2015 allegedly by men from migrant backgrounds, amid the influx of a high number of migrants. Countless right wing supporters took to the streets with anti-Muslim, anti-Islam marches and an intense debate was erupted on immigration.
The following year, Cologne police came under scrutiny when hundreds of men from North African descent were questioned.
On the New Year’s Eve 2017, special “women-only” zones were set up in Berlin for the first time.
