Assessment of the German Act to Improve Enforcement of the Law in Social Networks

2018Murat Volkan Dülger, Mustafa Temmuz OğlakcıoğluArticle

Abstract

This work was written in Turkish. The summary on this page is a translation; the citation gives the original title in parentheses.

With the development of technology, the ways in which people use the internet and the purposes for which they use it have both developed and changed. Today, social media networks are used as a means of receiving news, giving news and communicating. In parallel, it has become necessary for the law to keep pace with rapidly developing technology and to catch up with it over this period, and, in this context, for a legal framework to be created in which solutions to the problems are sought and the rights of individuals are defended. Germany has been one of the countries that responded to this need. This is not surprising, given that it was one of the first countries to use the internet and given how developed its legal system is.

In addition to many legal provisions on the subject, most recently the German Act on Legal Claims and Sanctions in Social Networks (Act to Improve Enforcement of the Law in Social Networks) was adopted on 1 September 2017 and entered into force on 1 January 2018. Although the Act mainly provides for sanctions against hate crimes, it also covers many offences in the German Criminal Code (which offences are defined as unlawful content is discussed in detail below). The new Act consists of six provisions in total; this article examines them one by one on the basis of the purpose the legislation serves.