eco Complaints Office Annual Report 2017: Successful Results, Despite Growth in Hate Speech Complaints

• Annual review records rise in number of complaints / approximately 95% of reported URLs taken down worldwide
• Growth in Hate Speech: balancing act with fundamental principles of democracy
• Combatting unlawful content must be the task of society as a whole

The 2017 Annual Report published today in the English language by the eco Complaints Office documents an increase in reported complaints: In the past year, a total of 27,660 complaints (disregarding spam and Usenet content) were reported to the eco Complaints Office, 4,063 of which were justified. Worldwide, around 95% of the URLs reported by eco were taken down from the Internet (of these, approximately one-fifth of the URLs – to be exact, 20.85% – were hosted in Germany).

Growth in Hate Speech: balancing act with fundamental principles of democracy

The legislation centering on the controversial Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) was a critical issue for the eco Complaints Office in 2017. Arising from this legislation, phenomena such as “Hate Speech & Company” made it increasingly into the public eye. “We have witnessed significant growth rates in complaints in the area of racism – compared to the previous year, the number of complaints received rose by more than 120 percent,” reports Alexandra Koch-Skiba, Head of the eco Complaints Office. However, complaints from this category of offense repeatedly prove how important a careful legal assessment is. “Under German law, 76 percent of the reported content was ultimately found not to be legally objectionable and was permissible. Legal borderline cases are often reported. It is always a balancing act with fundamental principles of democracy,” says Koch-Skiba.

The increased number of complaints and the – at times – contentious debates on the NetzDG have once again shown how important transparency is, not least for European policy-making:

“I would like to thank the eco Complaints Office for its successful and transparent work over around 20 years. In addition to combatting illegal Internet content, the eco Complaints Office is also an active co-organizer of preventive work, involving the promotion of media competence and awareness-raising on the Internet. Illegal and harmful content on the Internet can only be effectively combatted by working hand-in-hand with the Internet industry”, stated Sabine Verheyen, Member of the European Parliament, on the occasion of the launch of the Annual Report in the eco Capital Office.

Combatting unlawful content must be the task of society as a whole

Internet providers and companies shoulder a lot of responsibility in the successful cooperation with complaints offices and law enforcement agencies. However, it must be clear: “Consistent criminal prosecution is essential in order to effectively combat crimes on the Internet. The State must tackle the root of the problem by effectively prosecuting the perpetrators and by promoting public media literacy in order to raise awareness of illegal speech and content,” said Koch-Skiba.

The eco Complaints Office has been fighting illegal content on the Internet for around 20 years. It is embedded in the system of regulated self-regulation and has, in particular, the task of improving youth protection on the Internet. Since its foundation, it has cooperated continuously with law enforcement agencies, in particular with the German Federal Criminal Police Office. This cooperation was once more successfully strengthened last year.

Further information:

The eco Complaints Office Annual Report 2017 can be downloaded at: http://go.eco.de/report17-complaints-office

Further information about the eco Complaints Office can be found under the following link: international.eco.de/internet-complaints-office.html. Here, suspect Internet content of any kind can also be reported by means of an online complaint form. The message can be anonymous, if desired.