Ok, I could make this 300 lines long but I'll try to simplify the entire story/scandal.
Back in 2016/2017, a number of journalists, politicians, and public people (entertainers, comedians, etc) got hyped up and made public comments over migration, immigration and asylum (mostly all pro in nature). Freedom of speech in Germany allows that.
So, some right-wing individuals went to social media and were a bit hostile toward the commentary and then got further aggravated over social media 'control' and police involvement in their commentary.
At this point, more so into 2017....a different type of campaign occurred outside of social media. People got the addresses of these journalists, entertainers and politicians.....writing actual physical letters to them. Yes, just plain old fashion letters with intimidation wording in the middle of it.
Logically, you'd then ask....how did they get the addresses?
Well....the German government has this law that says when you move....establishing residence....you come to the town-hall (Rothaus) and enter the address data.
This database....is not only available for the city authorities, but to the police as well.
About a year ago, someone figured out the German database trail, and that someone in the police (here in Hessen) went into the system....found the individual's addresses and passed them on.
Now, part of this story, which isn't actively discussed....the computers at each police station....don't seem to be readily controlled. You would think passwords linked to individuals, and only certain people to control searches via the computer. Well....no. They ran a fairly sloppy review situation. The police can't be readily sure who did the review, or the leak.
This coming out and the chief of Hessen police held responsible? More or less. He resigned/retired, and a new guy (in the past month) has come onto the scene.
All of this leading to a commission to investigate? Yes.
The suggestion that a large assortment of Hessen police are right-wing? This story has started up and it'll be months before they can end the investigation. Leading to people being let-go? More than likely.
The surprising part of this? Everyone kinda assumed in 2017/2018 that various social media rules by Berlin would lead to controlling the right-wing and shutting down criticism of people via Twitter or Facebook. The right-wing crowd merely stepped to the side, and went the old-fashioned way...via regular postal mail. Hindering this or stopping it? It's hard to figure any remedy to resolve this postal intimidation situation, except to 'hide' addresses securely.
That's the basic introduction, and if you kinda wonder about the nightly updates on this? Well....it's mostly because there's no real four-star news items out there and two-star/three-star stories have simply moved up to the top level.
No comments:
Post a Comment