’60 Minutes’ aired a segment where it featured German police conducting a raid on someone’s home for ‘posting hateful speech online.’
“German state police raid a home, seizing the suspect’s laptop and phone. The crime? Posting a racist cartoon online,” the news magazine wrote.
“It’s 6:01 on a Tuesday morning, and we were with state police as they raided this apartment in northwest Germany. Inside, six armed officers searched a suspect’s home, then seized his laptop and cellphone,” the narrator said.
“Prosecutors say those electronics may have been used to commit a crime. The crime? Posting a racist cartoon online. At the exact same time, across Germany, more than 50 similar raids played out. Part of what prosecutors say is a coordinated effort to curb online hate speech in Germany,” the narrator continued.
WATCH:
German state police raid a home, seizing the suspect’s laptop and phone. The crime? Posting a racist cartoon online. https://t.co/4LHUP1ZWrB pic.twitter.com/tEC1N1Nm1L
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) February 17, 2025
In the segment, German prosecutors said it’s a “crime” to insult someone in public and online.
They also said it’s a “crime” to repost a lie.
WATCH:
CBS: “Is posting an insult a crime?”
German prosectors: “Yes”
CBS: “Is it a crime to repost a lie?”
German prosecutors: “Yes” pic.twitter.com/UABb2ch90v— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 17, 2025
Per CBS News:
The punishment for breaking hate speech laws can include jail time for repeat offenders. But in most cases, a judge levies a stiff fine and sometimes – keeps their devices.
Sharyn Alfonsi: How do people react when you take their phones from them?
Frank-Michael Laue: They are shocked. It’s a kind of punishment if you lose your-smartphone. It’s even worse than the fine you have to pay.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Because your whole life is typically on your phone now.
The application of Germany’s decades-old speech laws to the online world was accelerated after an assassination, fueled by the internet, sent shockwaves through the country. In 2015, a video of a local politician named Walter Lübcke went viral after he defended then-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s progressive immigration policy.
Svenja Meininghaus: People with a very right political world view they started– hating him on the internet. They started insulting him. They started to incite people to–to kill him. And that went on for about four years.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Online.
Svenja Meininghaus: Yes. Until in 2019, so four years after he gave that speech, he was shot in his head and instantly dead. So that was one of the cases where we see that online hate can sometimes find a way into real life and then hurt people.
After a man with links to neo-Nazis was arrested, Germany ramped up the creation of its online hate task forces. There are 16 units across the country, each with a team of investigators. Frank-Michael Laue, a career criminal prosecutor, leads the Lower Saxony unit.
ADVERTISEMENTSharyn Alfonsi: How many cases are you working on at any time?
Frank-Michael Laue: In our unit, we have about 3,500 cases per year.
Nine investigators work out of this office in a converted courthouse. Laue says they get hundreds of tips a month from police, watchdog groups and victims. The worst of the internet is wrapped in red case folders, stuffed with printouts of online slurs, threats, and hate.
Frank-Michael Laue: This is a criminal offense, so…
“Insulting someone is not a crime, and criminalizing speech is going to put real strain on European-US relationships. This is Orwellian, and everyone in Europe and the US must reject this lunacy,” Vice President J.D. Vance said.
Insulting someone is not a crime, and criminalizing speech is going to put real strain on European-US relationships.
This is Orwellian, and everyone in Europe and the US must reject this lunacy. https://t.co/WZSifyDWMr
— JD Vance (@JDVance) February 17, 2025
Newsweek reports:
The debate over Germany’s online speech laws gained traction in the U.S. after Vice President JD Vance, speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, accused European nations of suppressing free speech and marginalizing right-wing parties like the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Vance argued that censorship and government overreach pose a greater threat to European democracy than external adversaries like Russia or China. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius pushed back, calling Vance’s comparison of parts of Europe to authoritarian regimes “unacceptable.”
ADVERTISEMENTThe clash highlights a deeper divide between American and European perspectives on free expression.
In the United States, the First Amendment broadly protects most forms of speech, including hate speech. In Germany, however, authorities say they are enforcing legal boundaries that have existed for decades, particularly to prevent a resurgence of far-right extremism. German prosecutors told 60 Minutes that their work ensures democracy remains intact by preventing harmful rhetoric from spreading unchecked.
Dr. Matthäus Fink, one of the prosecutors leading these efforts, told ’60 Minutes’ correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi that many Germans are shocked to learn their online comments could be considered criminal. “They say, ‘No, that’s my free speech,’” Fink said. “And we say, ‘No, you have free speech as well, but it also has its limits.’”
The segment immediately sparked outrage in the U.S., particularly among conservatives and free speech advocates. Vice President JD Vance seized on the controversy to reinforce his earlier criticism in Munich, posting on X (formerly Twitter): “Insulting someone is not a crime, and criminalizing speech will strain European-U.S. relations. This is Orwellian, and everyone in Europe and the U.S. must reject this lunacy.”
Watch the full ’60 Minutes’ segment below:
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