German MP being investigated over anti-Muslim social media posts

Beatrix von Storch was temporarily banned from social media for 12 hours on Monday

A far-right German Member of Parliament (MP) is under police investigation for anti-Muslim comments that she made on social media on New Year’s Eve that can incite violence.



The Twitter account of Beatrix von Storch, deputy leader of Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, was temporarily suspended for 12 hours on Monday.

Von Storch blamed Cologne police of appeasing “barbaric, gang-raping Muslim hordes of men” for their tweeted new year message in Arabic. However, the police had also tweeted the message in other languages, including German, English and French.

Von Storch is now under consideration by authorities on whether she should be charged for incitement of hatred, a criminal offence.

On her return to the Twitter, Von Storch posted in German: “Facebook has now also censored me. This is the end of the constitutional state.”

Germany has stringent hate speech laws. Social media firms can face fines if they do not remove 'obviously illegal' hate speech and other postings within 24 hours of receiving a notification.



In June, in a question on Facebook of whether firearms should be used against women and children trying to cross the German border, Von Storch answered “yes”. Von Storch, whose grandfather served as finance minister under Hitler, clarified that her computer mouse had slipped.

 

This article originally appeared on The Guardian.