We have received a question about incitements to crime and/or genocide and how they interact with Romanian law per Anon.cafe's global rules. Please keep in mind that only the Romanian judiciary can decide precisely where, how, and to what a given law applies. We're doing our best to balance good-faith interpretations of the law with not stifling speech here.
The version of the Criminal Code we refer to has been posted as a PDF at
>>13751.
Genocide
Genocide is outlawed by Article 438 of the Criminal Code, within Chapter 1 (Crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity) of Title XII (Crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes). The full Article states:
>Art. 438
>Genocide
>(1) The act of committing, with the goal of destroying, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, one of the following offenses:
>a) killing members of the group;
>b) harming the bodily or mental integrity of members of the group;
>c) subjecting the group to living conditions of a nature that will lead to their physical destruction in whole or in part;
>d) enacting steps to prevent births within the group;
>e) forced transfer of children belonging to one group to a different group,
shall be punishable by life imprisonment or no less than 15 and no more than 25 years of imprisonment and a ban on the exercise of certain rights.
>(2) If the acts described in par. (1) are committed in wartime, shall be punishable by life imprisonment.
>(3) Conspiracy to commit the crime of genocide shall be punishable by no less than 5 and no more than 10 years of imprisonment and a ban on the exercise of certain rights.
>(4) Incitement to commit the crime of genocide, committed directly, in public, shall be punishable by no less than 2 and no more than 7 years of imprisonment and a ban on the exercise of certain rights.
Instigation
Instigation is defined in Article 47:
>ART. 47
>Instigator
>An instigator is a person who, with direct intent, determines another to commit an act stipulated by criminal law.
The word "determines" here is somewhat confusing; we assume it to be a translation glitch. The dictionary definition of "determine" is:
>determine: to control or influence something directly, or to decide what will happen
For example, someone who orders financial fraud to happen but does not do it themselves is the
instigator of that fraud.
Public instigation of offenses is outlawed by Article 368 of the Criminal Code, within Chapter 1 (Offenses against public order and peace) of Title VIII (Offenses that harm social relationships). The article states:
>ART. 368
>Public instigation
>(1) The act of urging the public, verbally, in writing or by any means, to commit offenses shall be punishable by no less than 3 months and no more than 3 years of imprisonment or by a fine, without exceeding however the penalty provided by law for the offenses to which the perpetrators instigated.
There is nothing about how specific nor clear an act of public instigation might have to be to qualify under this law. We imagine that saying something like "everybody must firebomb the house at 123 Fake St" might qualify as instigation.
Taken together, we might therefore conclude that directly urging the public to kill members of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, harm the bodily or mental integrity of members of the group, subject the group to living conditions of a nature that will lead to their physical destruction in whole or in part, enact steps to prevent births within the group, or force transfer of children belonging to one group to a different group, may be considered an instigation of genocide.
Two examples were provided to us.
First example, where a post read:
>"How much chlorine gas would one need to to theoretically gas a Walmart or similar in size building? Just for killing pests of course."
This is a question and does not appear to be urging anyone to do anything, even if it is a terribly unwise thing to ask on a board where weapons are discussed. This falls into the kind of post that /k/'s posters usually label as originating from law enforcement agent-provocateurs.
Second example, a general one that referred to no particular post:
>"gas the jews now"
Such statements are borderline. Such statements are usually hyperbole rather than serious urging. One must take context into account to determine whether any given post "[urges] the public" to take the action.