Beatrix von Storch, the deputy leader of Alternative for Germany (AfD), and AfD MP Alice Weidel, the party’s joint leader in the Bundestag, are under investigation by Germany’s state prosecutor over possible incitement to hatred. One of them tweeted that Cologne police were appeasing 'barbaric, gang-raping Muslim hordes of men' in a new year's message they tweeted in both German and Arabic. As a consequence, their Facebook and Twitter accounts were temporarily suspended under the new German law obliging social media providers to remove hate speech, which came into force on January 1, 2018.