Social network providers.

Draft Act combating right-wing extremism and hate crime

In addition to tightening national criminal law, the compliance obligations for social network providers in the German Network Enforcement Act [Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz – NetzDG] are being expanded for more effective criminal prosecution of hate crime. The providers are to forward content reported to them as punishable in the context of user complaints and the IP address of the user for whom the content was uploaded to a central office at the Federal Criminal Police Office. At the central office, the competent public prosecutor's office is subsequently established in order to enable effective prosecution of hate speech.

The forwarding obligation is limited to certain anti-democratic and punishable offences. The obligation is punishable by fine. The draft establishes the Federal Office of Justice as the competent administrative authority pursuant to § 36 of the Regulatory Offences Act [Ordnungswidrigkeitengesetz – OWiG].