She's not exactly a fan of freedom of expression.
Germany has a complicated history, which it has and will always struggle with. Restricting hate speech and symbols is completely legal and also seen as an important and good thing. The modern German constitution was built especially to defend its democracy even against a majority hostile towards it (Artikel 20). Germany has learned its own lessons from history.
If the speech Facebook is forced to delete is illegal, there must be criminal investigation, by law. So it can't be illegal, which means the government is actually suppressing freedom of speech.
> Restricting hate speech and symbols is completely legal
"But it is legal" is not exactly a helpful response to criticism of a law.
I agree with that. Facebook should not be the instance deciding what is to be deleted or not. The german judicial system should be involved and offenders be prosecuted within the judicial system.
For years, whenever I talk to German friends, the fear and timidity about discussing the German past from them is palpable. They just do not want to discuss it. All you have to ask them is, "So what do you think about World War II?" and you will see them start to sputter, slip into a kind of trance, and recite a spiel about how Germany did some very bad things. Even outside their country. They can't even talk about what is happening now. When I was in Berlin this year, in a very nice place in a very nice part of town, my host told me to make sure to lock up because there had been a steep rise in break ins and robberies in that part of town. I could tell he wanted to say "because of the migrants", but he caught himself and held his tongue. To point out the emperor's lack of clothes is verboten in Deutschland.
And now, again, we see the stirrings of strong, proud nationalist elements in response to all this, as what were previously fringe parties gain steam yelling about the Lugenpresse, and more and more Germans listen.
Hasn't this all happened before?
I'm not sure when political parties and other interested parties will figure out that shame and humiliation are terrible governance tools that only build up resentment and cause reactance in humans. Because they sure haven't figured this one out yet.
Explanations of why doesn't mean it's a good thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it
Essentially, the population at large decides that a thing should be censored for the greater good, but it can't be exactly defined, yet a consensus can usually be reached on any given example.
I, for one, believe that we should throw all members of your ethnic group into gas chambers and incinerate your bodies. I'm legally allowed to say this because I live in the USA.