Because of violence and death threats in public Facebook groups, the German Environmental Aid (DUH) has sued the Internet giant Meta. Federal Managing Director Jürgen Resch demands from the Facebook parent company the closure of certain groups and tries to enforce this with a model lawsuit before the district court of Berlin, as he announced on Wednesday. "We no longer tolerate the persecution and threat in such social media groups," Resch said. He himself and his employees have experienced massive hostility and insults for years, which have now culminated in calls for violence and fantasies of violence.
According to a spokeswoman for the judiciary, the lawsuit will be heard on April 13 before the Berlin Regional Court. Originally, this was planned for next Tuesday. For reasons of illness, however, the date had to be postponed, said the court spokeswoman.
Threats partly turned into reality
According to Resch, Umwelthilfe first tried to reach an agreement with Meta. However, the Facebook parent company refuses to close groups such as "Stop the German Environmental Aid (DUH)!" with around 50,000 members, in which threats of violence and death are regularly posted and sometimes remain standing for weeks. There is talk of "bounty" and "hiring killers", explained Resch. Some of the threats turned into reality. For example, he was sent an envelope with a shot cartridge.
A meta-spokeswoman said hate speech was unacceptable and that they were actively fighting the spread of hate speech on the meta-platforms. Meta is constantly investing in technology and reporting tools to detect and remove hate speech even faster. "In this case, we removed the content that was reported to us."
According to Resch, he has filed more than 300 criminal charges so far. However, these would not have led to an end to the threat. So far, Meta has been asked in vain for deletion and removal, said lawyer Juliane Schütt. The group refers to the possibility of reporting hate comments or filing criminal charges. "With the lawsuit, we want to ensure that Meta no longer shifts the responsibility to the victims, but even deprives the hatred in its networks of the breeding ground," Schütt emphasized.