REspect! is a Baden-Württemberg reporting center that channels complaints about online hate speech to police and prosecutors. Operated by the nonprofit Baden-Württemberg Youth Foundation, with €424,562 in funds from Leben Demokratie in 2025, it is part of “toneshift – Network against online hate and disinformation.” It also receives funds from the Bavarian State Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Affairs and is a designated so-called “Trusted Flagger.” REspect! nevertheless stresses that it is not a government service. An online form lets anyone flag posts believed in violation of German criminal law on incitement or threats, and the team – law graduates and social-science specialists – screens submissions and, when warranted, files a formal report with police agencies. REspect! also refers victims to counseling and civil society centers across Germany. Within the Youth Foundation, REspect! sits next to mentoring schemes and the school network “Learning Place for Democracy,” extending the foundation’s youth-oriented civic-education portfolio into the policing of digital abuse allegations.
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REspect! Reporting Center
Baden-Württemberg Youth Foundation
"Bavarian State Ministry for Family Affairs, Labor and Social Affairs",...See all
"Bavarian State Ministry for Family Affairs, Labor and Social Affairs", German Federal Program 'Living Democracy!' [Demokratie leben!], The Telekom Foundation [Deutsche Telekom Stiftung] See less
Toneshift - Network Against Online Hate and Disinformation, German Federal...See all
Toneshift - Network Against Online Hate and Disinformation, German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), Baden-Württemberg Youth Foundation [Jugend Stiftung] See less
Commentary:
REspect! approaches hate speech as a matter for the criminal code. It transforms the role once delegated to editors of weighing words, by also forwarding what is deemed to be egregious to the state. Such a procedure may reassure some that the internet is not a law-free zone. While REspect! stops short of blanket calls for platform bans, the model hinges on trust in police and prosecutors – institutions hardly immune to political and other bias – while offering little or no public data on case outcomes, other than 32,587 reports, of which a third were requested to be deleted due to "criminal relevance." The Youth Foundation frames the work as democratic education, but the service reduces politics to compliance and criminal law: see it, file it, let the state decide. Nothing is said about how commercial incentives on social platforms keep racist and other provocation in view, and how such categories may themselves be the expression of political disagreement.
REspect! approaches hate speech as a matter for the criminal code. It transforms the role once delegated to editors of weighing words, by also forwarding what is deemed to be egregious to the state. Such a procedure may reassure some that the internet is not a law-free zone. While REspect! stops short of blanket calls for platform bans, the model hinges on trust in police and prosecutors – institutions hardly immune to political and other bias – while offering little or no public data on case outcomes, other than 32,587 reports, of which a third were requested to be deleted due to "criminal relevance." The Youth Foundation frames the work as democratic education, but the service reduces politics to compliance and criminal law: see it, file it, let the state decide. Nothing is said about how commercial incentives on social platforms keep racist and other provocation in view, and how such categories may themselves be the expression of political disagreement.
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