What the Post Showed and What Followed
The trouble began in September 2022, when Van Houwelingen shared two side-by-side images under the caption "The façade and the reality." The first was an unaltered photograph of then-ministers Ernst Kuipers and Karien van Gennip holding up a flag representing the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The second was a digitally altered version of the same photo, with the SDG flag swapped out for a swastika flag.


Both ministers responded by filing a formal complaint with the police. Van Houwelingen eventually removed the post, but not before replacing it with a revised version that substituted the Nazi flag with a communist hammer-and-sickle symbol — which he publicly described as a "more fitting comparison."
A lower court in 2024 had already found him guilty, though it issued a suspended fine at the time.

Van Houwelingen appealed that decision, leading to the current ruling.

Court Rejects Free Speech Defence
The appeals court was firm in its judgment. It found that the post was defamatory in nature, as it implied a direct association between the two ministers and Nazi ideology — something the court said damaged their personal honour and public reputation.

The wide reach of the post on X was taken into account during sentencing, as was the fact that the targets were elected public officials.
Van Houwelingen had argued his .