Over the last two years, Germany has engaged in systematic repression of Pro-Palestine speech within its borders, including home raids for online speech, border interrogations and device searches, spurious criminal charges, and arrests at protests for speech acts - often accompanied by disproportionate use of force.
Social media monitoring, as well as video surveillance of association and expression at protests play an important and ongoing role, that becomes more problematic with the passage of Berlin's updated policing law providing for longer administrative detention, geofence warrants, and the expanded use of facial recognition in public spaces.
In this talk we briefly summarize events occurring in Berlin and Frankfurt over the last two years as they pertain to digital surveillance and repression. Amnesty and Civicus Monitor have spoken out about Germany's repressions in this area, and the latter has downgraded its rating for Freedom of Expression accordingly.
Come to find out what you can do to help push back against unconstitutional repressions of speech in Germany, and the role that NGOs and people with technical skills can play.