Sharing porn openly has always been illegal in germany. Liking a post is an endorsement (of a criminal act) or further spreading (which is illegal unto itself), depending on the platform. Same thing for hate speech. When the law says you can't say a thing, it's unclear how one would conclude publicly liking a post you can't legally make isn't criminal.
Obviously we have a different idea where freedom of speech ends.
PS. With this upcoming UN treaty on cybercrime citizen of one country not breaking their own law might still become a criminal because they had broken for example that German law. What a fucking mess we are getting into.
I'm supportive of limiting freedom of speech where said speech actually can cause real harm. Like, the same kind of speech that the OG Nazi regime used to justify sending six million Jews and many other people (e.g. the disabled, travellers, LGBT) to the gas chambers. Five minutes of a visit to Auschwitz, Dachau, Bergen-Belsen or other historical sites should be enough reason for that - maybe there are so many supporters of completely unrestrained freedom of speech in the US because y'all never had the chance to see the evidence in person.
I, however, object to prosecute people for simply expressing sexuality. Germany is the only country I'm aware of other than Islamist theocracies that goes after people posting lewds with such an insane ferocity.
> Germany is the only country I'm aware of other than Islamist theocracies that goes after people posting lewds with such an insane ferocity.
Well that's because this prosecution has been automated by the "Landesmedienanstalten" with "KIVI" which automatically scans most larger sites with UGC. From what I've heard they don't seem to seize anything in these prosecutions -- which is quite unusual, normally German police will seize all "digital devices" from suspected cybercriminals (just for a few years).
Increasing prosecutions by a factor X is seen as a huge success by the "Medienanstalten" btw., they boast quite openly about this on their own websites. More prosecution is more gooder.
I mean none of this is particularly surprising, these offices and their laws are one of the main driving forces behind mandatory ID checks and internet censorship in germany. Your comparison to similarly behaving theocratic executives is apt, especially considering the prussian origin of the underlying laws.
Which would be true, if Weimar germany was some sort of free speech heaven, which is what led to nazi germany. But it wasn't, and it didn't. The proof is literally right in your comment. One of the countries that had such unrestricted freedom of speech (the USA) was fighting the nazis, not being part of them. Weimar Germany had many more restrictions on speech than the USA had back then.
You might want to take a step back and consider that free speech had nothing to do with the holocaust. At most, it is a great way to justify censorship and pretend that restricting speech is somehow antifascist while also feeling morally superior, but it has no basis on reality.
Also, it is pretty ironic to say that the USA's policy is bad because they never had to see remanents of a holocaust... which is certainly a hot take.
