Berlin court agrees with Künast after hate comments

In the years-long fight against wild abuse on Facebook, the Greens politician Renate Künast has achieved a decisive success. The social network has to give the politician the data of ten other users who had massively insulted her online. The Berlin Superior Court decided that, as a court spokesman announced on Tuesday on request (Az.: 10 W 13/20). Künast got it right on all counts. The member of the Bundestag had been arguing for around three years that Facebook would give her the data of several users so that she could take action against them.

Künast was relieved: "It took an extremely long time, especially in view of the pace of the digital world, but now the hard-fought decision of the Court of Appeal has won a victory." Künast had been supported by the non-profit organization HateAid. "I have to take a deep breath now to be happy after the long fight," she said. The process was also emotionally difficult.

Unknowns had described Künast as a "piece of shit" and "old green bastard" and wrote even more drastic and sexist posts. The case caused a stir because the Berlin Regional Court initially decided that Künast, as a politician, had to accept all 22 insults – she had provoked resistance. The court later corrected itself.

However, it initially remained the case that Künast did not receive the data from all users. After the Berlin Court of Appeal classified only 12 of 22 comments as criminal insults and denied the right to information in the other cases, she went to the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe - with success.

Last February, the supreme court overturned the decisions of the Berlin civil courts (Az. 1 BvR 1073/20). These violated the plaintiff's personal rights. The ten statements would have to be checked again in Berlin – taking into account the specifications from Karlsruhe. That has happened in the meantime - and Künast has now achieved success in all points.