When the world gets closer.

We help you see farther.

Sign up to our expressly international daily newsletter.

DER STANDARD
Der Standard is a German-language, Vienna-based daily. It was founded in 1988 and has an estimated circulation of 86,000. Its political alignment is considered left liberal.
Germany's Far Right Extremists Are Using AI Images To Incite Hatred
Future
Renate Mattar

Germany's Far Right Extremists Are Using AI Images To Incite Hatred

Bogus images of angry dark-skinned men and bloodied blond women were quickly flagged as fakes, but the quality of the artificial intelligence is only bound to improve.

You have seen those AI-generated images circulating on the Internet in the last few weeks: Pope Francis in a puffy white parka, Emmanuel Macron in the mud, Donald Trump being forcibly arrested… Those images went viral. Such pranks, of course, might seem mostly harmless, and have been quickly flagged as fakes.

However, AI-generated images will no doubt be used for more dangerous purposes.

In Germany this week, we already saw it taken further than an innocent joke. Norbert Kleinwaechter, a deputy chairman from the far-right party Alles für Deutschland (AfD), recently posted on his Twitter account, several AI-generated images: one depicted a young blond woman, her face covered in blood, another showed a climate activist screaming.

Yet one particular image stands out, with an inscription — “No more refugees!”

Watch VideoShow less
Austrian Man Makes Case For Lower Fine After “Deliberately” Farting At Police
BBC
Bertrand Hauger

Austrian Man Makes Case For Lower Fine After “Deliberately” Farting At Police

In Austria, they call it Darmwind — literally "bowel wind."

In June 2020, a man was fined 500 euros for intentionally letting one such Darwmind go at police officers approaching him for an identity check as he sat on a bench in a Viennese park. The Vienna Regional Administrative Court has now reduced the fine to 100 euros.

As Austrian daily Der Standard recalls, the deliberate flatulence — and the hefty fine that ensued — had made serious headlines last year, with international media catching wind of the affair. Police at the time had justified the inflated penalty by saying the suspect "had already behaved in a provocative and uncooperative manner" before letting her rip.

The individual had appealed the fine, arguing that the incriminated gas was merely a "biological process' that had escaped him. The suspect also argued that the targeted fart should be considered public criticism of police forces, `and thus within "freedom of expression" rights.

Unconvinced by such a line of defense, the court responded that to fall within freedom of expression purview, a statement still had to convey certain "communicative content" — which, in the case of this "pure body stimuli," was not the case.

Ultimately, considering this was the man's first offense (as offensive as it may have been), the court decided to reduce the fine to 100 euros. So it seems that this singular story, as Swiss daily Le Matinconcludes, is gone with the wind ...