Slovak Interior Minister Roman Mikulec has promised to intensify the fight against hate speech and extremism following the terrorist attack outside a queer bar in Bratislava in mid-October that left two LGBTIQ+ people dead.
The interior ministry’s Centre for Combating Hybrid Threats will soon launch a new analytical tool to closely monitor and process massive amounts of data and information to identify signs of radicalisation, hate speech and extremism.
“Social networks are full of hateful comments, and there are also comments that endorse the attack and incite violence. Any approval, justification or incitement to commit a crime is a criminal offence and the perpetrator faces up to 10 years in prison,” Mikulec stressed.
Police started collecting information about hate speech targeted at the LGBTIQ+ community after the attack, the interior ministry stated.
Critics noted that the police and the National Criminal Agency did not have any information about the gunmen even though he had shared his views and a manifesto against Jews and LGBTQI+ community on social media, especially Twitter.
