Incitement to Hatred Online: What Is a Criminal Offence and How to Fight Back

Incitement to hatred (Volksverhetzung, § 130 StGB) is one of the most serious forms of hate crime. In the basic offence, the penalty is imprisonment from three months to five years. Even so, much content inciting hatred online is never reported. Often people affected and witnesses do not know where the line to a criminal offence lies – or that they can do something.

This article explains what § 130 StGB protects, how you can recognise incitement to hatred, where freedom of expression ends and what you can do.

What § 130 StGB protects

Incitement to hatred does not primarily protect the honour of individuals but peaceful coexistence – in legal terms, public peace (öffentlicher Frieden). It covers attacks on groups defined by nationality, origin, religion or ethnic affiliation, and on sections of the population. These can include, for example, people with disabilities, gay people or refugees.

Individuals are protected too – if they are attacked because they belong to such a group.

The elements at a glance

For the basic offence (§ 130 (1) StGB), two things must come together at its core.

1. An attack because of membership of a group

The law names two forms:

• Stirring up hatred or calling for violent or arbitrary measures. For example, calling for a refugee shelter to be “razed to the ground” or for people of a certain religion to be “chased out of town”.
• Attacking human dignity. A group is abused, maliciously held in contempt or slandered – in such a way that its members are denied their worth as people with equal rights. Typical are comparisons with vermin or diseases that must be “eliminated”.

2. Capability of disturbing public peace

Nothing needs to have actually happened. It is enough that the statement can endanger peaceful coexistence – for example because it reaches many people or because those affected can no longer feel safe afterwards. With a public post with a large reach, this is more likely than with a message to a single person.

What else falls under § 130

• Distributing content inciting hatred, such as texts, images or videos that stir up hatred: up to three years (subsection 2).
• Denying, approving or downplaying the Holocaust, publicly or in an assembly: up to five years (subsection 3).
• Approving, glorifying or justifying the Nazi regime of violence and tyranny in a way that violates the dignity of the victims: up to three years (subsection 4).
• Approving, denying or grossly downplaying other genocides, crimes against humanity and war crimes, if this can stir up hatred or violence and disturb public peace: up to three years (subsection 5).

Not covered by § 130, but also potentially punishable, are using symbols of unconstitutional organisations, such as the swastika or SS runes (§ 86a StGB), and distributing their propaganda materials (§ 86 StGB).

Examples: what is mostly permitted and what can be a criminal offence

The examples are invented. They show typical patterns, not a ready-made legal assessment. In the end, the individual case decides.

Mostly covered by freedom of expression:

• “The government's migration policy has failed. We need stricter rules.”
• “I consider the teachings of this religion to be wrong and misogynistic.”
• Sharp, even polemical criticism of a party, a government or an organisation.

Can be incitement to hatred:

• A public post calling refugees “parasites” that must be “smoked out”.
• A call in a messenger group with thousands of members to “clean up among the Muslims in the neighbourhood” at the weekend.
• A video presenting the Holocaust as an “invention”.
• A comment under the photo of a Black woman that denies her, because of her skin colour, being an equal human being.

Distinguishing it from other offences

Insult (Beleidigung, § 185 StGB) protects the honour of a specific person. If someone is abused without it being about origin, religion or any other group membership, this is usually an insult, not incitement to hatred. As a rule it is prosecuted only if the person affected files a request for prosecution (Strafantrag) within three months.

Hate-inciting insult (verhetzende Beleidigung, § 192a StGB) closes a gap. It covers content that attacks a group in its human dignity – for example because of its national, ethnic or religious origin, its worldview, disability or sexual orientation – and that someone sends to a person from that group who did not ask for it. A typical case is a racist direct message, which is not public and therefore often does not disturb public peace. Penalty: up to two years.

Freedom of expression (Article 5 of the Basic Law, Grundgesetz) also protects sharp, exaggerated and uncomfortable statements. Criticism of politics, of religions as doctrines or of public figures is in principle permitted. The limit is reached when people are no longer criticised but portrayed as inferior, or when hatred and violence are stirred up.

Particularities online

• Sharing can be a criminal offence. Anyone who shares or forwards content inciting hatred can commit an offence themselves. Don't share it, not even to express your outrage.
• Groups can be public. A group in a messenger can also create a public sphere if it is large and anyone can join.
• Offenders abroad. Acts committed from abroad can also fall under German criminal law. Whether that applies depends on the individual case.
• Anonymous accounts. Incitement to hatred is an offence prosecuted ex officio (Offizialdelikt). The public prosecutor's office investigates on its own and can request data from platforms.

What you can do as a witness

With incitement to hatred, you do not have to be affected yourself to do something. A request for prosecution is not needed. Anyone can file a criminal complaint.

• Secure. A screenshot with link, profile, date and context. How to do that is explained in Securing Evidence of Online Hate.
• Report. To the platform as illegal content. What the platform then has to do is explained in Digital Services Act.
• File a complaint. With the police, the public prosecutor's office or online via the online police station (Onlinewache) of your federal state. In several federal states there are also reporting points for online hate.

Typical mistakes

• Spreading it to warn others. A screenshot captioned “Look at this!” gives the content even more reach – and can get you into trouble yourself.
• Only reporting, not securing. If the platform deletes the content, the evidence for a complaint is missing.
• Arguing with offenders. Counter-speech can make sense. But it does not replace securing and reporting.
• Doing nothing because “it won't change anything”. Without a complaint, the authorities often never learn of the offence at all.

What you can do now

If you are attacked yourself, for example because you belong to a group that is being targeted, you do not have to sort this out alone. Report your case via our form. We check your report for completeness and refer it to a partner law firm that can assess your case. A report to us is not a criminal complaint. If you want to file one, also contact the police.

You will find more on the individual offences in Online Hate: What Is a Criminal Offence? and in Cyberbullying and Hate Speech: Definition, Examples and What Counts Legally. First steps after an attack are in What to Do About Hate Comments: 5 Concrete Steps.