Free speech and democracy under fire in Germany - Police raid the homes of dozens of people for online "hate speech"

Germany has just raided the homes of dozens of people for the "crime" of online "hate speech" and wants companies like Twitter and Facebook to pay massive fines if they don't censor what people say on their sites.

It turns out that Germany and Europe on the whole aren't as democratic as they once seemed to be. Maybe it's always been that way but now the internet is helping to reveal this truth to the rest of the world.

In the UK, the EU, and many of the EU member countries, there's a push on to heavily censor speech. From a New York Times article on the arrests and the proposed new law:

BERLIN — In a coordinated campaign across 14 states, the German police on Tuesday raided the homes of 36 people accused of hateful postings over social media, including threats, coercion and incitement to racism.

The raids come as Germans are debating the draft of a new social media law aimed at cracking down on hate speech, a measure that an array of experts said was unconstitutional at a parliamentary hearing on Monday.

The measure, championed by Justice Minister Heiko Maas for passage this month, would fine Facebook, Twitter and other outlets up to $53 million (50 million euros) if they failed to remove hate speech and other forms of illegal content.

Under German law, social media users are subject to a range of punishments for posting illegal material, including a prison sentence of up to five years for inciting racial hatred.

In terms of protecting democracy, the UK and Europe (and, it seems, Canada too to some extent) are all pretty weak links. We not only need to be fighting for democracy to come to China, Russia, and most of the rest of the world, but fighting to keep and restore democracy in the Europe and North America.

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