Anyone who surfs the internet has known it for some time: communication platforms must be moderated and regulated, otherwise they go out of control. Last year, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) questioned the rules under which this can happen. Platforms like Facebook can establish their own “internal rules” to eliminate “hate speech,” for example, which are stricter than far-reaching limits on freedom of expression. This Wednesday, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled on the public law version of the issue. According to this, ARD and ZDF are not only entitled to delete certain posts, but are also obliged to do so. Because the comments of users of social networks must be about the programs of the program.
A user of the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) Facebook page complained. Four years ago she got into a real skirmish with the MDR because some of his comments had been deleted, including his increasingly annoyed protests against previous deletions. His accusation culminated in the angry sentence: “The MDR can only delete illegal comments, everything else is censorship !!”
The actor commented on a program about a virus introduced by migratory birds
Broadcasters follow their respective “netiquette” on their own forums, where they reserve the right to delete comments that do not comply with the guidelines. This applies, for example, to defamatory and offensive statements as well as to fake news and invites violence. There is also a particularity of public law: according to the house rules in force at the time, the MDR also deleted contents “that have nothing to do with the MDR and its programs and contents that are not related to the topic”.
The Federal Administrative Court has now confirmed this approach in principle. According to this, public Internet services should be “broadcast bound” in order to protect private broadcasters and the press from cutthroat competition under public law. This stems from the so-called state aid compromise with the EU Commission, in which Germany pledged in 2017 to set clear limits on the internet presence of public service broadcasters in order to protect private providers. That is, if you want, the price of the contributory loan. And these limits, according to the court, also apply to user comments. The cancellation rules of the MDR are also proportionate. The user should not be listened to or warned afterwards.
The plaintiff wrote of a program on a virus introduced by migratory birds: “It’s amazing what should now be carried by migratory birds. Until 3 years ago, nothing was brought by migratory birds!!” The comment was removed as it was unrelated to the broadcast. The actor later admitted that the 2015 refugee policy was meant.
On one point, however, the Federal Administrative Court agreed with him. One of MDR’s forum posts was “National Raid Against Neo-Nazis”. These were searches at the banned association “Blood & Honor”, four people were arrested. The actor’s comment: “Will the killer be found in Strasbourg?” MDR deleted the post because the Strasbourg attack was about Islamist terrorism, not neo-Nazis. The court found it too petty: the post was eligible.
