Armin Wolf in the fight against hate on the Internet: Is the constitutional state powerless?

Armin Wolf in the fight against hate on the Internet: Is the constitutional state powerless?

Dealing with hate on the Internet can still be described as a legal challenge. Armin Wolf, ORF-ZiB presenter, addresses the helpless attempts to take action against insults and criminal content on Platform X in a current blog post. Wolf is regularly confronted with misogynistic, racist and politically extreme postings that are spread by an anonymous account. Despite national and EU legal regulations, such as the Hate on the Internet Combat Act from 2021, the options for enforcing the law are shaky. As Wolf reports, a report to X had no effect whatsoever because the company saw no violation of its own guidelines.

In September 2024, the lawyer Philipp Längle from Vorarlberg filed a criminal complaint against the unknown author and sought the release of the user data. But the Vienna Criminal Court issued an information order that was ignored by X. As with the Irish judiciary, which declared itself incompetent due to data not being physically stored, efforts in the USA were also seen as unsuccessful. The American authorities did not classify it as a priority crime. These experiences show that even prominent people with legal support have no chance against the hostility.

Challenges of the Digital Services Act

To combat such issues, the Digital Services Act (DSA) came into force on February 17, 2024. [Tagesschau] reports that this legal framework serves to take quicker action against illegal content on the Internet and, in particular, to combat hatred and hate speech on social networks. Large platforms, which are considered “gatekeepers” and have over 45 million users in the EU, are obliged to report suspected cases to the authorities and to remove illegal content in a timely manner. Under this law, providers like X also have a responsibility to protect minors and take into account the psychological effects of their services.

Despite this progress, it appears that there are still many uncertainties that can result in lengthy legal proceedings. Critics, such as MP Patrick Breyer, warn that the definition of infringement is problematic and that countries could potentially have content that is illegal only in their territory deleted across Europe.

Measures to combat hate

In addition to the DSA, the “Hate on the Internet Combating Act” offers expanded legal options to combat hate on the Internet. The legal measures include, among other things, the judicial deletion of hate postings and easier identification of perpetrators if this is requested from the regional court. Victims of online hate also benefit from psychosocial and legal support at no cost risk, which significantly improves their situation.

The Ministry of Justice is also a member of the “No Hate Speech” Committee, which has been active since 2016 and carries out important awareness-raising work. Nevertheless, it is evident that the rule of law and existing rules such as the DSA are often perceived as toothless. Wolf draws a critical conclusion: The path to take legal action against hate postings remains laborious and frustrating, which makes the structures of platform capitalism a significant hurdle.

Given all these challenges, the legal fight against online hate remains a key social issue that requires comprehensive action and close cooperation between legislators, platforms and civil society.