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An authoritarian shadow is looming over Germany under the political leadership of Friedrich Merz, according to renowned constitutional scholar Dietrich Murswiek, professor emeritus of public and administrative law at the University of Fribourg.
In an interview with the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, a respected Swiss daily newspaper based in Zurich, Murswiek warned of the progressive erosion of freedom of expression in Germany. The reason? The Berlin Court of Appeal (Kammergericht), the highest regional civil court, issued a shocking ruling, authorizing the LinkedIn platform to remove any posts that contradict the World Health Organization (WHO), the government or organizations such as the Robert Koch Institute, regardless of their veracity. Meanwhile, the German government will debate an Orwellian bill on November 6, aimed at combating “disinformation.” In short, all the prerequisites for a Ministry of Truth are in place.
The controversial decision in Berlin
The Kammergericht’s decision stems from the case of a user whose posts critical of vaccines were deleted by LinkedIn, which cited its guidelines against “misinformation.” The user’s account was subsequently suspended. But it was the reasoning behind this action that caught Murswiek’s attention, as the Court dismissed the appeal, ruling that the validity of the content is irrelevant: what really matters is whether the posts contradict the “official positions” of the government or the WHO.
Murswiek calls this interpretation "a grotesque disregard for the importance of freedom of expression." For the constitutional expert, the decision sets a worrying precedent: "If not corrected, a truth-finding body could be created for every policy area - from economic policy to defense, from the environment to social security. The government's position would always be the 'correct' one, and everything else would be banned as 'disinformation.' We only know this from Orwell's 1984 or dictatorial regimes."
Freedom of expression under attack
Murswiek, who has filed an appeal with the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, is confident that the decision will be overturned. "The Karlsruhe judges stated that the freedom to criticize the government and institutions is the essence of the democratic principle. There can be no rule, not even in the terms of service of the platforms, that defines only one valid opinion, that of the government or the WHO," he explains.
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