Racist Online Trolls Exposed on a German Blog

A website that aims to expose racist online trolls in Germany.Most trolls tend to find solace in the anonymity of the cyber space and tend to post stuff they would never say in person. Well, this site finds some of the racist comments these people make or comments made supporting far right activities of the NPD party, then add them to a real picture from the individual’s Facebook page. This is pretty easy considering most Germans use their real names even on social media.

The blog named Lookismus gegen Rechts, is on Tumblr and was launched in February. The founder who wishes to remain anonymous told the Stern that he got the idea after he read comments on an article that featured a victim of right-wing violence. He said he the comments had to be very malicious and stupid to be featured on the blog. The idea is to rain on the commenters parade and actually show them how stupid their comments were in the first place.

Ich sag es euch ja immer: wenn wir sie lassen, machen sie sich ganz von selber lächerlich http://t.co/VVivBvrl8K #rechtsdermitte

— Lily (@Piratenlily) February 14, 2014

Funny thing though is that although most of these people profess their love for Germany and complain how foreigners are adding “impurity” to the Vaterland, most can hardly write in grammatically correct German. Their pictures were also bizarre.

Nice! Dumme Kommentare von fremdenfeindlichen Menschen kombiniert mit ihren Facebookbildern – http://t.co/qg9zPl0AXT #LookismusGegenRechts — CarFreiTag (@CarFreiTag) February 12, 2014

Lookismus gegen Rechts has stirred a debate in Germany about whether postings online should remain anonymous or whether those who post racist comments should be named and shamed. On Twitter and Facebook the blog has been met with a mainly positive reaction. But is it going too far by posting photos and names?

Rassistische und Rechte Facebook-Zitate und die dazugehörigen Kartoffeln, veröffentlicht in einem Tumblr. http://t.co/9pHMOSm06B

— deltaware (@delta_ware) February 11, 2014

Facebook locked the profile page of Lookismus gegen Rechts on Wednesday evening. By that point the page had 2,700 likes.

And the founder said that the far right commentators were “denouncing themselves” by making their posts public.