This is what criminalizing speech in the name of tolerance eventually leads to. An intolerant state where if you say anything the authorities don't like, the cops come over to your house with a warning. It's ironic that the supposed advocates for migrants who claim to be fleeing a dictatorship turn free countries into police states on their behalf.
In rare instances, Dutch police are knocking on social media users' doors and asking them to be careful writing posts about refugees that could lead to real-life violence and, ultimately, to charges of online incitement.
One example is Mark Jongeneel, a small business owner in the small city of Sliedrecht who tweeted his reaction to asylum plans in his city:
"The college of Sliedrecht has a proposal to receive 250 refugees in the coming 2 years. What a bad plan! #letusresist"
Hours later, his mother (with whom he lives) contacted him to say local police had visited her house and were now on their way to his office.
"I asked them what the problem was. And they said, 'Your tweets,'" Jongeneel told DW. "And they asked me to be careful about my Twitter behavior, because if there are riots, then I'm responsible."
So if you say that something the government is doing is a "bad plan", the cops will pound on your door and let you know that you better watch what you say. Isn't liberalism awesome?
Throughout the Netherlands, the police visits are part of campaign led by local authorities to address concerns related to social media at the communal level.
A police spokesperson from the Oost-Nederland region added that similar programs in his region are intended to be proactive rather than reactive: Local authorities let social media users know in advance that they're walking a fine line, and they also inform those users that they could face incitement charges if their calls for protests ultimately result in violence.
"It's not all sunshine on social media," he told DW.
Or in Europe. This is a campaign of preemptive suppression of political dissent with even the mildest comments coming in for harassment and threats by police. This is the wonderful police state that the left has created even while it shrieks endlessly about oppression and fascism.
This is real life oppression. This is real life fascism.
Another spokesperson from the Brabant province, just south of the city of Sliedrecht (and Twitter user Mark Jongeneel), said authorities there tend to monitor anti-refugee protest pages on Facebook.
I hope they've got some Stasi advisers to help them do it.
Mark Jongeneel says the increased attention has not changed his behavior online - nor will it. "Freedom of speech is very important, and I will not be silenced," he said.