Twitch streamer Asmongold has now commented on political issues in Germany and painted a picture of Germany that does not correspond to the truth. He suggests that in Germany it is a criminal offense to call overweight people “fat.” This can result in five years in prison. He is happy to live in the USA, where there is freedom of speech.
What is Asmongold saying? In a YouTube clip “Fat Jokes are illegal now”, taken from his Twitch live stream, gaming streamer Asmongold tells his viewers:
The German police are investigating a case: someone called the Green Party politician Ricarda Lang “fat” online. The Federal Criminal Police Office wanted to find out the person’s data in order to prosecute the person and asked a US company for the personal data.
He then shows a statement from the US social network “Gab” in which it is claimed that the German government is investigating a user of the platform because he called a German politician “fat”. Gab should hand over the user’s data – the user faces five years in prison.
The video then makes fun of Ricarda Lang at length and asks why it is problematic to call a politician overweight when people openly make fun of Donald Trump in carnival parades.
Asmongold’s career and life in 3 minutes – What makes him special?
More videos
Asmongold thanks God that he lives in a country with freedom of speech and not in Germany
This is what Asmongold says about it: The streamer says:
If all they have done is call her fat, then they should launch an investigation in Germany into why she is fat, what she eats, why this is happening. […] I think Americans don’t understand what a huge privilege it is to have the right to free speech in our country. I think so many of us take it for granted.
I say, thank God I don’t have to live under the thumb of some guy who’s going to put me in jail for something he thinks is offensive. The idea that ideas are dangerous is very frightening to me.
BKA investigates for “defamatory and sexualized depiction”; not because someone called Ricarda Lang fat
What is the error? Asmongold is relying on a false portrayal of events shared by the social network itself and picked up by some media outlets.
If you read through the BKA’s request to the Gab platform, you quickly realize: It is not about Ricarda Lang being called “fat”, but rather the user has sexualized and degradingly portrayed her in a fake picture – in a defamatory manner.
However, Asmongold completely ignores the “sexualization” and “degrading portrayal” in his account and turns it into: “Someone called her fat – and now the entire German state apparatus is busy investigating and wasting its resources on such nonsense.”
The head of the social network Gab shows the letter from the BKA:
The post in question is dated February 12, 2022 and shows a naked, overweight woman with the caption “Ricarda Lang is now also personally processing asylum applications.”
The prosecution is therefore not about the fact that Ricarda Lang was portrayed as overweight, but primarily about the sexualization and defamation.
To reduce such an image to “Someone called Ricard Lang fat and should go to prison for five years” is simply not what is happening here.
Nevertheless, the video remains unchallenged on the internet, triggering heated comments and people seem to seriously believe that freedom of speech does not apply in Germany. The video has now received 410,000 views – in just 9 hours.
Asmongold has been the focus of discussions about gaming lately. He has a large reach on YouTube and people he criticizes are always the focus of his viewers: Conflict over Black Myth: Wukong escalates – Asmongold pillories freelance employee of IGN