In recent years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of comments and posts in the online space that instill fear, incite hatred, or violate someone’s human dignity. In addition to numerous technological and social changes, it is particularly the anonymity afforded by social media that “encourages” many people to publish statements that they would probably not make in real life.

The legislator sought to curb this trend by adding a new criminal offense to the Criminal Code on January 1, 2025: online aggression.

What was the situation before and what has changed now?

It was already possible to prosecute online threats and offensive statements under existing criminal law provisions such as harassment, defamation, libel, and incitement against the community. The problem was that these did not always accurately cover online behavior that was clearly hateful and/or fear-inducing, making it difficult to take action against it with state instruments.

The new criminal offense focuses specifically on the internet and aims to curb hateful and threatening online content.

When does internet aggression occur?

When someone publishes an expression, image, picture, or audio recording on social media (more precisely, “in the public domain via an electronic communications network”) that expresses the intention to commit a violent crime—one that causes death or is committed with particular cruelty. Therefore, it is not obscene language or offensive tone that is punishable, but the communication of violent intent or desire. The maximum prison sentence that can be imposed is one year.

When is it not punishable?

No crime is committed if the content is published for informational, educational, scientific, or artistic purposes, or for the purpose of providing information about historical or current events, and is not intended to cause fear.

Who should be affected by the post?

The threatening content must refer to a specifically identifiable person. If it cannot be determined who the person is, then it cannot be considered online aggression in the criminal law sense. It is important to note that the crime can only be prosecuted on the basis of a private complaint: in other words, the decision to initiate proceedings depends on the victim’s decision and, in practice, on the filing of a complaint.

Where is the line between opinion and crime?

This is a divisive issue even among lawyers, and it is often difficult to draw the line between freedom of expression and criminal behavior. Freedom of expression is a very important fundamental right, but it does not give anyone the right to make threats or instill fear.

As a general rule of thumb, we should only share content that we ourselves would not find intimidating or offensive if it were directed at us. Civilized communication should be a basic principle on all platforms.

Online aggression is a new phenomenon, so best practices are still evolving. Much will depend on future judicial practice and the circumstances of each case. For this reason, each case requires individual legal consideration.