Police intervened on 23 Internet hate messages in 2018 – 922 cases were flagged

Federal police intervened only 23 times last year to ask Twitter, Facebook or Google to remove hate messages, Het Laatste Nieuws reported on Saturday. In the aftermath of Christchurch, only one report was registered. 

The Internet Referral Unit (IRU-i2) — federal police section in charge of monitoring Internet hate messages — treated 922 cases last year, but only requested sites like Twitter, Facebook, or Google to delete comments on 23 occasions, according to the Flemish daily. 

"When our service detects on the Net an inappropriate message related to our country, we attempt to identify the person behind it," police said. "We then register a report and ask the platform to delete the message." 

Hate preachers are only pursued when inappropriate comments are posted repeatedly. "We analyse their Net profile and behaviour. It is only after this procedure that the decision is made to prosecute or not."

The Brussels Times


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