Consequences such as: Anyone who advocates terror on the Internet should be expelled

The federal government has launched a legislative initiative to change the residency law. It aims to make it easier for foreigners who condemn, welcome or glorify terrorist crimes to be deported. A conviction in criminal court has not yet occurred. In such cases, there should be a “particularly serious interest in deportation”, as previously existed in the areas of smuggling and narcotics crime.

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threshold for catching New sections The key Federal Interior Ministry (BMI) deliberately kept it low. The department explains that only supporting or promoting “a single terrorist crime” is sufficient. To date, advocacy for several such crimes has been required. According to the BMI, from now on, “a single comment glorifying and approving a terrorist crime on social media can arouse serious interest in deportation”.

The government wants to replace the term terrorist writings in the Criminal Code (StGB) with “content”. According to Section 11 StGB, this refers to, among other things, content on sound or image media, in data storage, images or other incarnations. The justification goes on to say: “The distribution of content can now also include marking a post by ‘liking’ it on social media such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, etc.” She is referring to a controversial issue Decision of the Meiningen Regional Court from 2022 (Reference: 6 Question 146/22).

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Lawyers and the Left: A worrying development

Such an interpretation in particular raises serious concerns. “The fact that even a carelessly distributed emoji should lead to expulsion is not proportionate,” complains Gisela Seidler, chairwoman of the Migration Law Committee of the German Bar Association (DAV). It is inconceivable that just one like on Instagram or Facebook should constitute the dissemination of terrorist content. “The assessment of what counts as ‘advocacy of terrorism’ cannot be left to immigration officials,” insists Seidler. This should be reserved for criminal courts because it is also about the limits of freedom of expression. Expulsion is already possible if found guilty.

Klara Bünger, a legal expert for the Left in the Bundestag, spoke of a “temporary climax of a worrying development”. When it comes to authoritarian states such as Turkey or Russia, German politicians are outraged that people there can be persecuted or even imprisoned because of likes on social media. But the Federal Republic itself has long been moving in this direction. But expulsions do not solve social problems.

BMI cannot understand the enthusiasm. “Expulsion by local immigration authorities is a serious constitutional decision, against which there is legal protection before the administrative courts,” a ministry spokesman told Heise Online. A district court ruling in a criminal case is cited in justification of the proposal. However, this does not make “any statement about the question of expulsion”, but rather “disseminates material in the sense of the criminal law”. Criminal proceedings before ordinary courts differ from administrative court proceedings with regard to possible expulsion. In this regard, the jurisprudence of the administrative courts will be important here.

BMI: Expulsion as such cannot be justified

“From BMI’s perspective, ‘as is’ cannot justify a serious decision such as expulsion,” the spokesperson stressed. “For this purpose, the immigration authority and, if necessary, later the administrative courts must weigh in each individual case between the interest in staying and the interest in deportation.” So “serious reasons are necessary”. Expulsion should be possible, especially in serious cases such as videos glorifying terrorism and hateful comments that welcome acts and may encourage others. When asked by Heise Online whether a data protection impact assessment has been carried out and how it should be ensured that the project can be implemented in accordance with data protection rules, BMI did not respond.

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Fesser (SPD) was the first to stress: “We are taking strong action against Islamist and anti-Semitic hate crimes on the internet. In Germany too, Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel were celebrated in the most disgusting way on social media. This is just as inhuman as the horrific Islamist knife attack in Mannheim, where young police officer Reuven Laor was killed, was glorified online. “It is good that numerous police investigations are underway.

This initiative is designed as a so-called formulation aid. These are usually corrections to an ongoing legislative proposal that have already been agreed upon with government factions and can then be decided upon quickly. There are no hearings or first readings. Specifically, the controversial articles are to be added to the draft law “to strengthen early public participation in the planning and approval processes”. The majority of votes of the traffic light coalition were in favour of the cabinet’s decision.

(MKI)