Be very careful what words you use when you publish content on the Web. Just using the word "Gentrification", for example, could be grounds for arrest in Germany. Anti-terrorist agents in Germany arrested the urban sociologist Andrej H. after they googled some key words and were linked to his research (HT Dr. Dean):
Dabei stellte sich heraus, dass BKA-Beamte mit einer Google-Suche nach den Begriffen "Gentrification" und "Prekarisierung" auf den Stadtsoziologen aufmerksam wurden. Die Tatsache, dass der Soziologe zu den Begriffen forschte, die für die Aufwertung oder Abwertung von Stadtvierteln benutzt werden, genügte offenbar den BKA-Beamten, um eine Verbindung zur "militanten Gruppe" herzustellen. "Das reichte für die Ermittlungsbehörden für eine fast einjährige Observation, für Videoüberwachung der Hauseingänge und Lauschangriff".
Some of the words used by Andrej H. were also found in communications used by a "militant group" in Berlin that is suspected of arson. The actions of the German prosecutor’s office have unleashed a international protest by academics:
In two open letters, more than 100 academics from Britain, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, the United States and other countries have called on German Federal Prosecutor Monika Harms to release sociologist Andrej H. from a Berlin prison. They fear the Humboldt University researcher is being charged with membership in a terrorist group on the basis of his work.
"We strictly oppose the use of violence as endorsed and practiced by the ‘militant group,’" one of the letters reads. "At the same time, however, we strongly object to the notion of intellectual complicity adopted by the federal prosecutor’s office in its investigation. …Such arguments allow any piece of academic writing to be potentially incriminating," the letter goes on to say.
What is the lesson here? Never publish ANYTHING on the Web; you might use a word that could be considered support of terrorism. George Orwell never dreamed of a tool like Google.
