Topic analysis

'Atlas of Civil Society' downgrades Germany

Brot für die Welt's annual 'Atlas of Civil Society' report has downgraded Germany from a fully open society to one with limited openness, citing concerns including police brutality at Gaza solidarity and climate protests, rising discrimination (queerphobia, racism, antisemitism), and disinformation targeting migration, the LGBT+ community, and climate change. The report also notes a global trend of declining open societies—only 3.4% of the world's population lives in truly open environments, with 30.7% in closed authoritarian settings—and calls on the EU to strengthen protections for activists and enforce the Digital Services Act to address tech platforms' inaction on disinformation.