When standing up against hate speech in online communities, one of the most important steps is to quickly bring criminal offenses comitted online to prosecution by the proper authorities. Hamburg's Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection aims to assist companies in keeping their communites safe. In order to achieve this, they set up an online service to be used by companies that run or use online communities to enable them to quickly report hate comments and harassment incidents that come to their attention.

Through the online service, participating companies can file criminal charges directly with the Hamburg public prosecutor's office with little effort by filling out the necessary forms directly on the online platform. Also, screenshots and small video files can be uploaded to document the reportet activities. Those reporting criminal charges can do so anonymously via their company's account. If - as in the case of insults, for example - a formal criminal complaint is required, this can be downloaded, signed by hand and uploaded again or photographed.

The Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection also offers free online training sessions for companies that consider to start using the service. The next training will be on June 23, 10 - 12 am. To register for the training, please contact the Ministry directly via e-mail at ohnehass@justiz.hamburg.de.

You can find all information on the reporting service, the project "OHNe Hass" and the training offer on the website of Hamburg's Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection: https://www.hamburg.de/bjv/ohne-hass/  (Content provided in German only)