A follow-up poll on ESOC off topic controversial content

[chris1089]

"Common sense tells me that its unlikely to be true that the mere use of a slur online is illegal. Could be mistaken, but I doubt it."
Because some people don't get convicted doesn't make an activity legal.

@princeofcarthage they do not have the resources to actively monitor everything. No it's not just extreme cases, rather it's when people report others and bring it to the attention of the police, whether that be because it is an extreme case or whether that be because the person or viewpoint being reported is disliked.

According to the UK hate speech law, I can say more or less anything is hate speech, and then it is, just because I say so. There are thousands of reported hate crimes each year, most just don't go to court but get put on your file.

[princeofcarthage]

I can sue you based on your post for hate speech?

[Theodore]

I can sue you based on your post for hate speech?

In Germany yes. You can file for an injunction and (depending on the wording) immaterial damages, that's your civil law option.
Also, you can inform the police / prosecutors and they will start an investigation which might end in criminal procedures. See sec. 130 of the German Criminal Code:

(1) Whoever, in a manner which is suitable for causing a disturbance of the public peace,
1. incites hatred against a national, racial, religious group or a group defined by their ethnic origin, against sections of the population or individuals on account of their belonging to one of the aforementioned groups or sections of the population, or calls for violent or arbitrary measures against them or
2. violates the human dignity of others by insulting, maliciously maligning or defaming one of the aforementioned groups, sections of the population or individuals on account of their belonging to one of the aforementioned groups or sections of the population
incurs a penalty of imprisonment for a term of between three months and five years.

Also, insulting someone may lead to the same consequences. You can file an action to prohibit any further insults, and depending on the seriousness you may even go to the police / prosecutors to kick-off criminal proceedings. In theory, calling someone an "asshole" is also a criminal offense, Sec. 185 German Criminal Code.

Most hate speech on the internet remains unpunished because the offenders live in a different country or remain anonymous. But, over the course of the last 5 years, the prosecution of hate speech increased a lot. We do have police units checking on facebook to fish out those who commit these offenses and use their real name.

[princeofcarthage]

@Theodore Thank you for the explanation. However it was unnecessary as what I mean and what you are saying are 2 different things. Chris in post above mine stated " According to the UK hate speech law, I can say more or less anything is hate speech, and then it is, just because I say so. There are thousands of reported hate crimes each year, most just don't go to court but get put on your file. " I was asking in such a case can I sue him for his above post which you can see is not at all hate speech, but if I say so it should be. That would be indeed nonsense and I don't think such a law exists.

[princeofcarthage]

@princeofcarthage they do not have the resources to actively monitor everything. No it's not just extreme cases, rather it's when people report others and bring it to the attention of the police, whether that be because it is an extreme case or whether that be because the person or viewpoint being reported is disliked.

You do realize that monitor doesn't mean a person behind desk reading every of your message or listening to your calls right? It is simply a script following set of instructions which flags content. Red flagged content is then sent further to another script which follows more stringent set of instructions and more recently uses machine learning to try and make context of the conversation. The content here which is flagged red, the sender is identified and whole background check is done and a "likely %" to commit crime is derived. Again which is done by a script. Only when the % crosses some threshold is that sent to a human analyst. To give an example how less of manpower it needs, you can create an experimental discord bot which could be active in n servers and send you a message or notification on mobile when a certain word was said. It will basically be monitoring thousands of messages a day and only alert you lets say when one says IGEL. Imagine if you dedicate full time to this, the bot would need to be in thousands of servers to keep you busy whole day.

[deleted_user]

Abolish the Patriot Act.

[chris1089]

@princeofcarthage
Yes I know that is what happens. I say it is impossible because the algorithm misses things. It is based on a priori assumptions of what might need to be flagged.

You won't get compensation in a civil law suite, but you could probably put stuff on my file for "hate speech" yes.

[princeofcarthage]

Interesting.

[evilcheadar]

Abolish the Patriot Act.

Be patriotic man

[deleted_user]

In true form I haven't caught up on most of these posts and refer elsewhere to my tortoise and hare post.

[lejend]

I don't think there's any offensive language on the forum, though the anti-Semitism in every other thread is kinda annoying. But the biggest problem with the forum is that at least 70% of the posts are either ironic/unserious or just complaints about other users. I visit the forum maybe once or twice a week and I never miss out on anything, since it's always the same posts being made every day. And no, it's not a basement thing; the same people complaining about the basement have no problem spamming the forum or insulting random posters (just read the last few posts in the Dem primary thread). This is a forum-wide problem.

[Cometk]

I don't think there's any offensive language on the forum, though the anti-Semitism in every other thread is kinda annoying. But the biggest problem with the forum is that at least 70% of the posts are either ironic/unserious or just complaints about other users. I visit the forum maybe once or twice a week and I never miss out on anything, since it's always the same posts being made every day. And no, it's not a basement thing; the same people complaining about the basement have no problem spamming the forum or insulting random posters (just read the last few posts in the Dem primary thread). This is a forum-wide problem.

tbf the responses to your post were because your post was garbage, a complete willful misrepresentation of reality

[lejend]

I don't think there's any offensive language on the forum, though the anti-Semitism in every other thread is kinda annoying. But the biggest problem with the forum is that at least 70% of the posts are either ironic/unserious or just complaints about other users. I visit the forum maybe once or twice a week and I never miss out on anything, since it's always the same posts being made every day. And no, it's not a basement thing; the same people complaining about the basement have no problem spamming the forum or insulting random posters (just read the last few posts in the Dem primary thread). This is a forum-wide problem.

tbf the responses to your post were because your post was garbage, a complete willful misrepresentation of reality

If you think a post is garbage, the proper response is to either ignore it or point out what parts you disagree with. "Set [poster] to foe" is just off-topic spam and adds nothing to the discussion

[Cometk]

don't have time to waste giving it a proper response but, at the risk of making a fallacious argument now, it was very clear that a lot of other people also thought that post was garbage

[Amsel_]

Apparently cartoon frogs and hazmat suits are no longer allowed to be posted on the forums. In my vast ignorance, I clearly cannot see the urgent necessity for this rule's implementation before any actual quality control. Since I am so foolish and lacking in wisdom, I'm worried that I may accidentally break another rule which needn't be said to the average user due to it being common sense. Have these rules been written down somewhere, or should I just trust in the subjective whims of our intelligent and impartial moderator?

[fightinfrenchman]

Apparently cartoon frogs and hazmat suits are no longer allowed to be posted on the forums. In my vast ignorance, I clearly cannot see the urgent necessity for this rule's implementation before any actual quality control. Since I am so foolish and lacking in wisdom, I'm worried that I may accidentally break another rule which needn't be said to the average user due to it being common sense. Have these rules been written down somewhere, or should I just trust in the subjective whims of our intelligent and impartial moderator?

Just stop posting dumb images

[bittersalt123]

I don't think there's any offensive language on the forum, though the anti-Semitism in every other thread is kinda annoying. But the biggest problem with the forum is that at least 70% of the posts are either ironic/unserious or just complaints about other users. I visit the forum maybe once or twice a week and I never miss out on anything, since it's always the same posts being made every day. And no, it's not a basement thing; the same people complaining about the basement have no problem spamming the forum or insulting random posters (just read the last few posts in the Dem primary thread). This is a forum-wide problem.

Show me an example where someone is being anti semitic on the forums? You're the reason people troll because you cry wolf

[fightinfrenchman]

I don't think there's any offensive language on the forum, though the anti-Semitism in every other thread is kinda annoying. But the biggest problem with the forum is that at least 70% of the posts are either ironic/unserious or just complaints about other users. I visit the forum maybe once or twice a week and I never miss out on anything, since it's always the same posts being made every day. And no, it's not a basement thing; the same people complaining about the basement have no problem spamming the forum or insulting random posters (just read the last few posts in the Dem primary thread). This is a forum-wide problem.

Show me an example where someone is being anti semitic on the forums? You're the reason people troll because you cry wolf

[Goodspeed]

Apparently cartoon frogs and hazmat suits are no longer allowed to be posted on the forums. In my vast ignorance, I clearly cannot see the urgent necessity for this rule's implementation before any actual quality control. Since I am so foolish and lacking in wisdom, I'm worried that I may accidentally break another rule which needn't be said to the average user due to it being common sense.

I'm sure you can find a way to make your point without posting memes that are widely interpreted as a subtle expression of racism.

Have these rules been written down somewhere, or should I just trust in the subjective whims of our intelligent and impartial moderator?

They haven't been written down yet, but even with them written down I will make seemingly arbitrary decisions that you disagree with. Feel free to make a thread about this, discuss it here, or reply to my PM if you have any questions about my reasoning.