In the latest crack down on online speech, Anonymous are in the sights of German police. A German branch of the group is now under investigation by authorities who say that either a supporter, or the operator of the group’s Facebook page, is wanted for “sedition” and public incitement of criminal acts, Spiegel Online reports. But the move looks like backfiring on both the authorities and Facebook, as more and more people tire of being treated like disobedient children.
The prosecutor in the German city of Erfurt claims that a man named Mario Rönsch is their main suspect in the case. Mr. Rönsch is wanted in connection with spreading ‘hate speech’ (i.e. facts) about migrants. The prosecutor did not go into detail regarding the charges, though noted that the site had been advertising “right-wing” views.
The page “Anonymous.Kollectiv” was shut down earlier this year by Facebook who have been working with German authorities to suppress the pages of people and groups who are critical of the migrant crisis and who express patriotic views. Anonymous moved their page to rapidly growing Russian Facebook competitor VK shortly after their Facebook page was shut down.
The page was closed after the group had released leaked documents regarding the German government’s plan to spy on Internet users and curtail dissenting opinions. The leaked documents showed the cooperation of the government with Zionist ex-Stasi agent Anetta Kahane and the Amadeus Antonio Foundation who were recently protested by the hipster-right Identitarian Movement in Berlin.
German media reports that the origin of the charges come from disgraced Green party politician Volker Beck who earlier this year was arrested for possession of crystal meth in Berlin. Mr. Beck claimed that the page was behind threats, incitement to crime and defamation against him. The politician supplied authorities with information on the identity of the person behind the posts earlier in the year.
According to German magazine Focus, Mr. Rönsch is the administrator of the Anonymous page, though Mr. Rönsch himself has denied the claim. In 2014 he took Spiegel Onlineto court in an attempt to stop them publishing his name in connection with the page.
Mr. Rönsch has also appeared in videos for right-wing magazine Compact which are critical of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In the video Mr. Rönsch, who is presented as a long time reader of the magazine, calls for the resignation of Ms. Merkel — much in the same way the supporters of the PEGIDA movement popularised the chant “Merkel Muss Weg” or “Merkel Must Go” — though Mr. Rönsch has stated that he would like to see her in prison, as well.
The Erfurt prosecutor said that there are currently three cases open regarding Mr. Rönsch, but none of them can proceed until the police are able to locate his whereabouts.
We at the APF have noted with grave concern for some time that virtually all nationalist groups rely on Facebook to a huge extent for recruitment and even organisational communications. Given that the giant business is run by people TOTALLY hostile to all we stand for, we have to say that this is madness. We are building our organisations on a system totally controlled by bitter opponents.
Of course, because the Western take-up rate with VK is at present very low, Facebook will remain the main mechanism by which we try to reach the public for some time to come. But there is absolutely NO reason for any nationalists to use Facebook for internal communications. Sooner or later we’re all likely to be ‘purged’ from Facebook anyway, so the sooner we all start to use VK, the less damage we’ll suffer from Mr Zuckerberg’s censorship. And the sooner we’ll begin the process that will end up with a full-scale popular revolt against Facebook.
