Why are brutal acts like those in Zurich Albisrieden filmed and distributed on the web? Who is liable to prosecution? On the other hand, an IT lawyer and a media psychologist are giving away.
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Candles in front of the Bachwiesen community center in Zurich.
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A 20 year old beats up an older man. His fatality has no permanent address and has been sleeping for years at the Bachwiesen community center on a financial institution. Because an emergency doctor is on the spot an indefinite time later, he can only determine the death of the 66-year-old man.
But that’s not all. There is a video recording of which fact that is distributed on the Snapchat network until it is deleted from there, probably by the operators of the platform themselves.
The act shocked this week. But the fact that acts of violence, humiliation of other people or life-threatening tests of courage are filmed and posted on the network is a well-known phenomenon: Time and again, websites and social media channels that distribute this type of content are talked about. Now why does he like to eat sweets like this? And what are the consequences then? We put those questions to a lawyer and a psychologist.
Martin Steiger: “A video can increase this sentence”
Violent videos on social networks are becoming more common. Martin Steiger has been observing this trend for some time. This does not surprise the lawyer: “The popularity of social networks is unbroken. Like every mass phenomenon, such criminal behavior also has an effect in which social structure. ”
–Martin Steiger is a lawyer in favor of IT law.
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Steiger specializes in law in the digital space. This distribution of blatant depictions of violence is punishable, he holds. And not only this: In addition to … Procurement and mere possession of such material are punishable. “In favor of the suspects in the core of Albisrieden, this video can result in an increase in the sentence,” he says. In addition, the recording of information can give away a special unscrupulousness, which influences this level of punishment.
If videos in social media posts portray other people in a humiliating way, it is often difficult for those affected to defend themselves against it and to have the corresponding posts deleted. Because fatalities are not always aware that videos or photos of them are circulating on the network. And even if: defending yourself is not an easy undertaking. If the conflicts take place exclusively in the digital space, for example between cyberbullying, they are even more difficult to assess.
The operating companies of many social networks have no competent branches in Switzerland. Seen in this way, a public prosecutor’s office can usually only approach the corporations with the detour of a request for legal assistance with claims. And so it can sometimes take months before a Swiss authority can conclusively assess the facts. Martin Steiger says: “For the benefit of many of those affected, such processes are immensely frustrating.”
This Federal Parliament has been very supportive of the fact that Internet companies in which Switzerland should have a delivery address. This could make lengthy requests for legal assistance pointless. The matter is still pending with the representation of the member states, says Steiger. He recommends: “If you are obedient to a problematic postal service, the best way to do this is to report it to the relevant Internet company.” Again, this is just a suggestion. Above deletions categorically the operators themselves.
Daniel Süss: “It’s about gift”
–Daniel Süss, professor in favor of media psychology.
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Why is such an act even filmed and this video even published on the network? Daniel Süss is professor in favor of media psychology at which ZHAW and professor in favor of communication science at which University of Zurich. He says: “Thanks to social media, it has become a matter of course to share the entirety as much as possible. At first it is trivially about gifting, about observance and sometimes also about the ratification that what you did was good. ” Terrible or absurd acts would be spread to find support.
This phenomenon appeared around 2015 under the questionable term “happy slapping”. Once upon a time, groups of young people attacked more and more fatalities, those united struck, the others filmed. The videos were distributed intrinsically to which violence-oriented peer group, in order to use which «heroic act» to gain advantage. Because the media also showed such violent videos, there were acts of imitation. In the end, the police went out of their way to stop communicating such incidents. According to Süss, happy slapping has hardly been an issue since then.
The underlying motifs are now also blooming in the adult world. Because the best-known pattern calls the storm on the Capitol in favor of media psychology. «This smartphone completely had this with it. They proved the act in order to be able to maintain it. ” Süss also mentions the amok acts of the last few years, the perpetrators of which created live streams in order to be able to distribute extremist messages in the network.
What can the social structure do about it? The media shouldn’t spread hate or violent videos any more than Bon in favor of their past, says Süss. Instead, he expects a critical assessment and embedding in the context. And he holds on: “If you witness an act of violence, you shouldn’t pull out your cell phone straight away and record the scene, but rather bring help together as quickly as possible.”
When asked why onlookers have always flocked to the accident sites, says which media psychologist: “In addition to being able to do something scary and terrible with this without feeling privately threatened, it triggers fascination.” Perhaps this is evolutionarily proportionate: If which person does not look carefully between a dramatic event, he cannot weigh up whether he is threatened himself. “What’s new is that you can also film it and put it live on the network immediately.” Most of it is harmless, even flat – with exceptions such as the terrible central point in Zurich Albisrieden.
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