Germany starts enforcing new counterterrorism law

Aya Ezz

Germany’s counterterrorism law came into effect on April 2.

The law, which was passed by the German parliament last summer, was approved by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier only this week.

Social media sites will have to adapt themselves to the articles of the new law as of February 2022. They will do this by removing content that incites violence, threats, and rape. The same sites will also have to remove hate speech from them.

Social media sites will have to also notify German authorities about those posting comments that encourage the aforementioned crimes.

Terrorists’ return

Germans live under a perpetual fear from the return of terrorists to Germany, according to a new study.

The study, conducted by the European Center for Counterterrorism and Intelligence Studies, says Germans consider the return of those terrorists a direct threat to their country as well as to the rest of Europe.

Around 1,050 German nationals had travelled to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the study says.

Around 330 of these German nationals already returned home between 2014 and 2015, it adds.

The study says a German team is on a secret mission outside Germany now to collect information about German citizens who are within the ranks of ISIS now.

Training mosque imams

The German Ministry of the Interior has already started training mosque imams in the light of the new counterterrorism law.

Mosque imams in the northwestern German city of Osnabrück have already received training.

Around 30 imams from the city participated in the training which was delivered in the German language.