Christopher Street Day in Gifhorn has a sequel: many insults and threats were posted on Facebook under an online post about the CSD. State security and the public prosecutor’s office are investigating.
A total of around 2,500 comments were secured, the investigators said. Many of them contained insults and threats. The article has since been deleted from Facebook by the editors of the “Gifhorner Rundschau” because of the “wave of hateful comments”. According to the police, around 600 people took part in the CSD in mid-July. The State Security Department of the Gifhorn Police and the Central Office for Combating Hate Crime on the Internet in Lower Saxony (ZHIN) at the public prosecutor’s office in Göttingen are now evaluating the comments in order to initiate criminal proceedings.
Mahncke: “Internet is not a lawless space”
Franz Mahncke, head of the Central Criminal Investigation Department of the Gifhorn Police Department, stressed that the Internet is not a lawless space. Criminal offenses such as insults, slander, threats and incitement are pursued just as consistently in the digital space as in other life situations.
CSD in Braunschweig uses private security service
The CSD has been taking place in Braunschweig since Friday. Last year, a 22-year-old man was attacked by a group of five. He was treated on site as an outpatient. Investigators assumed it was a homophobic act. In order to make the current event safe for everyone, the organizers said that additional private security forces will be deployed this year.
