Collective phenomena of the digital space - Criminological dimensions and challenges to criminal law

数字化的发展带来了新的沟通方式。相当多的人参与公共讨论，并利用社交数字空间发表情绪化的批评言论，包括对第三方的攻击。本项目通过对网络Twitter的探索，对这些现象进行了深入研究。迄今为止，根据当前的法律的状况，刑法对上述问题的研究仅限于个人的刑事责任。犯罪学研究，特别是在德语区，基本上是不存在的。考虑到相当多的人同时采取行动所产生的具体影响，以及社会科学的研究结果，在这些情况下，这些研究结果假定具有核心行为者和强大的群体动力效应的集体，因此需要进行进一步的犯罪学和刑事研究，该项目旨在探讨这些现象的潜在危害，并在此基础上审查德国刑法。该研究是基于一项实证调查。为此，一个编程软件通过评估德语推特网络中六个月内使用的主题标签所定义的新出现的主题，自动收集适当的数据。通过这种方式，它可以在早期阶段识别新出现的主题，并记录所有相关账户的参与情况和结构。这发生在现象发生时，因此记录包含所有推文，包括后来被删除的推文，以及可能包含更关键或犯罪相关内容的推文。在项目中，收集的数据将得到补充和评估。基于统计值和文本分析，集体现象的基本结构以及它们的内容和语言课程被显示出来，由此受损的法律的利益变得可见。此外，参与者的结构和参与的强度进行了审查的社会网络分析。这些调查结果被用来审查刑事责任制度，并调查主要行为者的刑事责任。此外，还分析了特定行为，例如使用自动账户，所谓的机器人，以及这种现象的多重参与以及这种行为的可惩罚性。

The progress of digitalisation enables new forms of communication. A considerable number of people take part in public discussions and use the social digital space to make emotional, critical statements, including attacks against third parties. The project takes a closer look at these phenomena by exploring the network Twitter.So far, research in criminal law regarding the above-mentioned matter has been limited to the criminal liability of individuals according to the current legal situation. Criminological research, especially in the German-speaking area, is largely absent. Considering the specific effects, which result from simultaneous action of a considerable number of people, and regarding social science findings, which in these cases assume collectives with central actors and strong group-dynamic effects, further criminological and criminal research is required.The project aims to explore the harming potential of these phenomena and, on this basis, to review the German criminal law. The study is based on an empirical survey. For this purpose, a programmed software automatically collects appropriate data by evaluating the emerging topics, defined by the used hashtag, in the German-speaking Twitter network over a period of six months. In this way, it recognizes rising topics at an early stage and records the participation and the structure of all accounts involved. This happens while the phaenomenon is taking place, so the record contains all tweets, including those that have been deleted later and that may contain more critical or criminally relevant content.Within the project, the collected data will be complemented and evaluated. Based on statistical values and text analysis, basic structures of the collective phenomena as well as their content and language courses are shown, whereby the impaired legal interests become visible. In addition, the structure of the actors involved, and the intensity of participation are examined by a social network analysis. These findings are used to review the criminal system of imputability and to investigate the criminal liability of key actors. In addition, specific behaviours, such as the use of automated accounts, so-called bots, and the multiple involvement in such phenomena as well as the punishability of this behaviour are analysed.