8 ms·
The irony that freedom of speech is more protected in Germany than in the US.
by varispeed 6y ago
The irony that freedom of speech is more protected in Germany than in the US.
- maweki 6y agoAnd why exactly would that be ironic?
- chmod775 6y agoOne of 4chan's favorite past times is discussing which country has more freedom of speech. It always ends in a massive flamewar and I can only recommend not to repeat that here.
- maweki 6y agoI was asking where the irony would be coming from, and not whether the attached statement was factual.
- kstrauser 6y agoThat's not ironic. They spilled blood over it much more recently than we have.
- luckylion 6y agoThey did? I don't think it'd be ironic, but it's also not true. It's obviously not a free speech issue, and Germany has laws regarding copyright and circumvention of constraints. I doubt a large company would have taken the same route, uberspace is just generally pretty cool and user friendly.
- ahofmann 6y agoAs a European, I can't find any irony in that. It seems completely normal to me.
- dschuler 6y agoThere is actually _less_ legal protection for speech in Germany than the US. For instance, it's against the law to insult a government official like a cop (Beamtenbeleidigung). This could mean saying something like "damn cops" in earshot of the police - it doesn't take much. You could argue that courts aren't as accessible in the US as they should be without deep pockets (rightfully so), but fundamentally free speech _is_ much better protected in the US.
- wumms 6y ago> Beamtenbeleidigung In Austria and Germany insulting a government official is handled by the same law as insulting a normal citizen is (except for that also the superior can file charges for subordinates). [German] https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamtenbeleidigung https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamtenbeleidigung
- dschuler 6y agoAccording to the one law in this link (German law §90 StGB), offending the president of Germany carries a penalty of anywhere from 3 months to 5 years prison. This can even apply in private matters. Speaking of Austria, blasphemy laws still apply there and were upheld by an EU court when challenged two years ago [1]. [1] https://humanism.org.uk/2018/10/29/european-court-of-human-rights-rules-that-austria-can-keep-its-blasphemy-law/ https://humanism.org.uk/2018/10/29/european-court-of-human-r...
- TillE 6y agoPeople talk a lot about the UK's strict defamation laws, but the German concept of "Beleidigung" goes much much further. It's against the law to give someone the middle finger, for example.
- varispeed 6y agoIt seems like the concept of psychological injury is treated as a second class event where often it can leave scars for years or even lifetime.
- roywiggins 6y agoGermany only revoked their lèse-majesté law in 2017. https://www.dw.com/en/germany-revokes-lese-majeste-law/a-39094800 https://www.dw.com/en/germany-revokes-lese-majeste-law/a-390... Famously, games in the Wolfenstein series are pretty heavily censored in Germany: https://kotaku.com/wolfenstein-2-has-a-strange-workaround-for-germanys-cen-1819985020 https://kotaku.com/wolfenstein-2-has-a-strange-workaround-fo...
- gottz 6y agothe irony is, ToS of hackernews prevents me from giving an example of what is allowed in germany.