Question of the day: Could you imagine a Western nation where you could potentially be imprisoned for questioning the mainstream media narrative?
Well, that is basically happening in a real place — Germany. Many assume that Europe is something like America when it comes to free speech and other liberties, but that isn’t actually the case.
The First Amendment is unique. For instance, basically, every time I tweet, I get an email from German Twitter.
I know it sounds weird, but it’s German Twitter and it has an enforcement program. And I get these emails, notifying me of things like, “Hello, Twitter is required by German law to provide notice to users who are reported by people from Germany via the Network Enforcement Act.”
And there are certain things you can and can’t say on German Twitter. Here are two examples:
President Zelensky is a very bad character who is working with globalists against the interests of his own people. I will not move one inch away from that assessment—ever—no matter how flowery the media depictions of him are.
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) March 17, 2022
Welcoming myself to Elon’s Twitter!
Does this mean I am allowed to say that only women can give birth without having my account locked again?
Are biological realities no longer considered “hate speech?
May we meaningfully differentiate between mental disorders and truth?
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) October 28, 2022
But beyond Twitter, the reason I’m telling you this is because one of the laws that they have in place is Section 130 of the German Penal Code which is meant to prohibit “hate speech.” It has existed since 1871 in response to the spread of communism. Its intent has changed over time.
So, under this code, you are prohibited from doing things like publicly denying the Holocaust or other hateful things, and the penalty is three months to five years in prison.
Just to give you a recent example, there was a woman, she’s 93-years-old and she was sentenced to one year in prison for Holocaust denial in April of this year.
The New York Times also reported in September, that German authorities arrested a 51-year-old man who “was accused of violating laws against online hate speech, insults and misinformation. He had shared an image on Facebook with an inflammatory statement about immigration falsely attributed to a German politician.”
You can even be arrested for insulting somebody in public in Germany. The definition of “hatred” under the law is so very vague.
Recently, Germany even tried to expand the laws by requiring social media giants to “notify the government when they detected online hate speech and other illicit content, a rule that could have led to thousands of new cases per year,” according to The Times.
It was struck down by the court, and thank goodness for that.
Now, why am I telling you that?
Well, evidenced by recent news stories from Germany, the direction the country is headed is clear.
Dissent is not going to be tolerated — especially if it is misconstrued as being hateful.
Yet we’re seeing similar things here in America. We might not have laws — but we certainly have a mainstream media that enforces certain narratives which they claim you’re not allowed to question.
People say that even asking questions about certain topics is an act of terrorism. Consider the treatment of January Sixth — or what the left calls “the insurrection.”
Leftists say, “These people, they’re domestic terrorists. Do you support Trump? Then you must be a domestic terrorist if you do. Oh, my gosh, be so afraid. How can you even question the narrative about January Sixth?
God forbid you to ask meaningful questions about January Sixth, as I have done.
There was also a recent news story about the Department of Homeland Security’s collaboration with Big Tech giants to censor and block speech they deemed hateful — essentially online police.
When our government works in lockstep with the mainstream media, problems are going to arise that are very scary, and it is not right.
It goes against our First Amendment — something Germany does not have.