German Censorship Highlights Europe's Eroding Free Speech Protections

America stands alone in valuing and protecting free speech.

There's a lot to dislike about Germany's Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), the nativist–populist party that came in second in the country's recent election, but the party's battles against government suppression of its efforts to recruit supporters and criticize rivals aren't among them. Then again, members of the AfD aren't alone in being targeted for voicing disapproved ideas; across Germany, the U.K., and elsewhere in Europe, declining respect for liberal norms is breeding censorship and arrests for offending politicians.

State Surveillance of the Main Opposition Party

"Germany's spy agency BfV has labeled the entirety of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as an extremist entity," the German state-owned Deutsche Welle reported May 2. "The designation gives authorities greater powers to monitor the party, with measures such as intercepting phone calls and using undercover agents."

The designation was quickly suspended pending an appeal and as the government contends with the unavoidable fact that the AfD is the main opposition party in the Bundestag, Germany's parliament. In February's election, the country's conservative Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), came in first with 28.6 percent, the AfD won 20.8 percent, and the previous main governing party, the Social Democrats (SDP), pulled 16.4 percent. The CDU/CSU and the SDP formed a coalition, which left the AfD the largest bloc of opposing legislators.

Putting the main opposition party under an "extremist" designation subject to surveillance is a frightening step for a democracy.

"One of the things I appreciate about America is that when the federal government attacks free speech there's instant pushback by civil society," Jacob Mchangama, the head of The Future of Free Speech think tank at Vanderbilt University, responded to the controversy. "People take to the streets. In Europe free speech has been in steep decline for years, but there's no real public outcry, no mainstream concern about democratic backsliding. In fact, the Old World is in a state of delusional 'Censorship Denial.'"

This wasn't an isolated incident. Last month, David Bendels, an AfD-associated editor, was sentenced to seven months' probation for posting a mocking meme of former German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser holding a sign digitally altered to say the German equivalent of "I hate freedom of speech." Like other members of the last coalition, Faeser has a censorious reputation; she banned Compact magazine as "extremist" just last summer.

Germany, of course, has a special history in terms of extremism. The horrors committed by Adolf Hitler's Nazi government still cast a shadow and are frequently invoked as an excuse to suppress individuals, publications, or organizations government officials claim are trying to revive that evil legacy. In truth, AfD officials sometimes evoke the Nazi past in disturbing ways, though that fault is hard to apply to its large voter base. By contrast, the crimes of the communists who ran East Germany until reunification are often overlooked even though the Left Party, which won 8.8 percent in February, is the direct descendant of the party which ruled the totalitarian East.

Police Raids for Insulting Politicians

But nationalist "extremists" aren't the only targets of Germany's censors.

"In an effort it says to protect discourse German authorities have started prosecuting online trolls and as we saw it often begins with a pre-dawn wakeup call from the police," CBS News' 60 Minutes reported in a February segment about German speech policing. Cameras followed cops pounding on an apartment door in one of "more than 50 similar raids" in a "coordinated effort to curb online hate speech." What is hate speech? As 60 Minutes noted, "German law prohibits any speech that could incite hatred or is deemed insulting."

Last November, a Bavarian man was investigated for referring online to then- Deputy Chancellor Robert Habeck with a pun that roughly translates as "idiot." Police raided the home of a Hamburg man for calling a local politician a "pimmel" (dick). Berlin banned the pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel slogan "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." And Irish protesters in Germany were forbidden to speak in Gaelic because police wouldn't be able to tell if they were saying verboten things.

Yascha Mounck, a German-born political science professor at Johns Hopkins notes that Germany has always been more restrictive about speech than the U.S., but that things have recently grown worse.

"Over the past decade, a raft of new laws has further extended restrictions on free speech," he warns. One, the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz—usually shortened to NetzDG—imposes a duty on online platforms to remove "hate speech" and insults. Another criminalizes critical remarks about politicians. It's these laws, Mounck warns, "that major German politicians now routinely invoke to ask the police to prosecute citizens, from good-faith critics to run-of-the-mill social media trolls."

Europe's Illiberal Trend

Mounck points out that the NetzDG has been copied by authoritarian countries, including Russia. After all, if it's good enough for a western nation, why not them? And Germany isn't alone among European governments in growing more censorial.

"The times in which Britons could confidently say whatever they wanted without fear of landing in jail are now long gone. It began, as in many European countries, with hate speech legislation," he adds. "It is now possible—and indeed quite common—for Britons to be jailed for up to six months for tweeting a stupid joke without ever coming into contact with a judge who has a law degree or being able to exercise the right to a trial by jury."

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) echoes such warnings.

"Free speech in Europe is under debate at the moment, and for good reason," FIRE's Sarah McLaughlin wrote in February. "For anyone who is concerned about the preservation of free expression on a global scale, the restrictions on speech—including online speech—in countries like the United Kingdom and Germany in recent years have been alarming."

McLaughlin also pointed to Italy where a musician from the band Placebo has been charged with "contempt of the institutions" after calling Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni a "piece of shit, fascist, racist."

Notably, Mchangama, Mounck, and FIRE have all opposed efforts by both the former Biden and current Trump administrations to suppress speech politicians don't like and to punish critics. But, as they point out, America has a robust free speech culture and civil liberties advocates who are quick to protest and litigate against government overreach.

Maintaining America's tradition of free expression is important for the preservation of our liberty. It's that much more so when you realize this country is really the last bastion of free speech values.