Renate Künast has achieved legal success against the Facebook group Meta in a dispute over defamatory false quotes. The Green politician could demand that a very specific word-image combination with a false quote that was attributed to her be blocked. This was decided by the Frankfurt Regional Court (file number 2-03 O 188/21) on Friday, April 8, 2022. In addition, similar variants of this meme with “core-same” content must also be deleted without further reference to the respective Internet address. The decision is not yet final.
Renate Künast was supported in the process by the organization Hateaid , which campaigns against hatred and hate speech online. “The verdict is a sensation. The court has made it clear that social media has a responsibility to protect users,” Hateaid said in a blog post .
The lawsuit was filed by Chan-jo Jun in Würzburg, which has already sued Facebook several times. Lawyer Chan-jo Jun says of this verdict: “This is a turning point for victims of hate crimes, defamation, threats or insults. This ruling makes it possible for the first time to effectively defend oneself against illegal campaigns. The high compensation is an incentive for platform operators to take content moderation seriously. It is the first time that Facebook has paid compensation for poor moderation decisions. The court had previously also ordered Twitter to pay compensation for pain and suffering.”
What happened?
The Facebook post was a meme in which, next to a photo of Künast, there was a quote about integration, which was fictitious. This false quote, which is the statement: “Integration begins with you as a German learning Turkish!” , was repeatedly shared on Facebook and led to hate comments against the politician.
We at Mimikama discovered this false report back then and reported about it here. The quote wasn't true, or rather Künast didn't say it in that form.
The alleged quote has been circulating since the beginning of 2015
The alleged quote has been circulating as a meme since the beginning of 2015 and is based on a statement by Renate Künast that she made on the Beckmann - der Talk program on August 30, 2010.
Künast himself commented on the circulating quote via Facebook and wrote on February 23, 2015:
There has been a campaign for some time now that claims that I said that integration begins with us all first learning Turkish. I didn't make that statement. Years ago, in a discussion on “Beckmann/ARD”, I reacted to Thilo Sarrazin, who simply refused to correctly pronounce the name of Aygül Özkan, another interviewee, and said: “Integration begins with you as a German making your own Remember the name.”
Renate Künast, February 23, 20215 via Facebook
Künast demanded that Facebook delete the entry
The politician demanded that the Meta company, as the operator of Facebook, delete the entry. The post was also published in different versions.
This happened in the Facebook policy process
- 2015: The meme/misquote was circulated online. ( we reported )
- 2019: The Glawischnig judgment is handed down at the Court of Justice of the European Union. ( we reported )
- 2021: Lawsuit against Facebook ( we reported )
- 2022 (January) : Oral hearing
- 2022 (April) : The verdict is here: Facebook is now obliged to search for and delete all identical and essentially identical memes by Renate Künast that are present on the platform at the time of the verdict. In addition, Facebook is obliged to pay compensation of €10,000.
Künast: “Milestone for our democracy”
In a joint statement with Hateaid, Künast described the verdict as a “milestone for our democracy”: “This fundamental decision with the obligation to delete all existing false quotes finally makes the platforms responsible.” ( source ).
Künast also writes on Facebook:
I am very pleased about today's ruling by the Frankfurt Regional Court, it is a milestone for our democracy, the fight against right-wing extremism and for all users on the internet! This fundamental decision to delete all existing false quotes finally makes the platforms responsible.
Renate Künast, April 8, 2022 via Facebook
A Meta spokeswoman explained that the company was now waiting for the verdict and would examine further possible legal steps. The judgment can be challenged with an appeal to the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court.
Lawyer Jun on this topic in a video from 4/8/22
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Related to the topic > Politician quotes: fakes, truth, taken out of context?
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )