

This is a clickbait headline. The headline implies that the German State is using AI to censor. It is not! While there might be a lot to criticize the German State/Goverment for, this is not it.
It is a different actor developing a model, not the state. One can rightly criticize that, but that is definitely protected under scientific freedom.
[…] the Decoding Antisemitism project at the Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University Berlin […]. With the help of a large language computing model, the project aims to create “an [AI] algorithm that will automatically recognize antisemitic statements in web comments . . . so that antisemitic posts can be removed more efficiently and accurately” by online platforms.
Oh come on, just accept that the wording of the headline is wrong and misleading.
If a Country is named in the headline like this, it is always implied to be the state/government. No other interpretation makes sense, the society is surely not using ai to censor.
Even if we consider that not to be the case, just for the sake of the argument, you still can not say “a few people at this project” = “Germany (Society)”. I heavily caution you to not go down the generalization route of “a select group” = “german society”. You ought to think about what that assertion would mean in the context of hamas and palastinians.
While universities get funding from the state, they are mostly free to research what they choose. On the projects website is also no sign of direct funding by the state. You are free to criticize the research, but what you are implying is that the state should censor the direction of research because you don‘t like it, which is quite ironic.