“Incitement to hatred” is a crime in Germany that refers to any form of violence or defamation against parts of the population, including assaults on human dignity. The law is often used to punish acts that in the United States would be protected by the First Amendment, such as denial of the Holocaust or promoting far-right ideology. In recent years, the law has been used against people posting hateful comments about Jews or foreigners over social media.

German law also prohibits the public display of symbols from banned organizations, such as the Nazi swastika or the stiff-armed Hitler salute. These laws date back to the founding of the country’s democracy after World War II. Recent disputes have raised the issue of whether they can be displayed, even when crossed out.

[The shooting has renewed debate over how to combat domestic terrorism.]

In France, the act of publicly denying the Holocaust is also an offense, as is the act of publicly denying other crimes against humanity. French laws punish defamation or provocation to hatred or violence on the basis of race, religion and other factors.

“Disseminating” messages that are “violent” or that could “seriously harm human dignity” and that could be seen by a minor is also an offense. The far-right leader Marine Le Pen is being prosecuted on that charge, after she posted pictures of Islamic State violence on Twitter.

Terrorist attacks over the past decade have also shaped attitudes toward free speech in France and elsewhere in Europe, with some recent laws punishing the incitement to terrorism, or even the public justification of terrorism.

The manifesto published shortly before the El Paso shooting — which praises a gunman who killed 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand — would in France probably be considered defamatory on the basis of race, an incitement to racial hatred and violence, and an incitement to and justification of terrorism. In Germany, it would likely be seen as incitement and therefore be against the law.