Berlin - Germany's justice minister called Thursday on public authorities and internet users to play a greater role in halting the spread of what is being called cyber hate. "We will fail if we do not include civil society in the fight against hate on the internet," Brigitte Zypries told an international conference in Berlin.
Zypries said neo-Nazis and Islamic radicals were taking advantage of the anonymity of the internet to spread hatred and broadcast misinformation disguised as fact.
In Germany there are around 1,600 web pages with an extreme right-wing content, about 10 per cent of which are "criminally relevant," said Heinz Fromm, president of Germany's domestic intelligence service.
There are also around 750 extremist videos and profiles on websites, the home pages give the impression they are regular sites for young people, according to the youth protection group jugendschutz.net.
In order to circumvent European Union laws that prevent such hate sites, extremists often use internet providers in countries where no such regulations are in place, Zypries said.
Hate websites were blamed this week for contributing to the murder of a 31-year-old Egyptian woman by a man described by prosecutors as "a fanatical racist."
Marwa el-Shirbini was stabbed to death in a courtroom in Dresden as she was about to give evidence against the man, accused of insulting her because she was a Muslim.
A coordinating council representing Germany's four main national Islamic bodies charged that she was a victim of the hate websites that had sprung up after Germany had tried to prevent women teachers wearing headscarfs.
