Expert panel with Federal Minister Zadic on “Hate on the Internet” in Linz

Many people, especially women, are repeatedly confronted with defamation, insults, hate posts and bullying on social media. The question of where freedom of expression ends and where a criminal offense begins is often very complex, especially on the Internet.

But on January 1, 2021, the Hate on the Internet Act brought effective protection against hate postings on the Internet. This package of measures made it clear that the Internet is not a lawless space, but that the rule of law applies here too. Among other things, the law makes it easier to track down perpetrators in private prosecutions and expands the legal support provided to victims.

How this law can be applied in practice, what experiences there are with it and where there are still sticking points will be discussed by an all-female panel of experts at the invitation of the Green Education Workshop Upper Austria on Monday, September 9, in the Old Town Hall in Linz. The panel will include Federal Minister of Justice Alma Zadic, Lyane Sautner, criminal law expert at the Johannes Kepler University Linz, Kerstin Matschiner from the Upper Austrian State Police Directorate and Tips editor-in-chief Alexandra Mittermayr. The event will be moderated by Agnes Sirkka Prammer, MP and justice spokesperson for the Greens, who worked on the law.