Altermedia

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Altermedia
Website logo
" In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. (George Orwell) "
" In the age of universal fraud, telling the truth is a revolutionary act (George Orwell) "
Far right website
languages English, German and others
editorial staff David Duke (USA); Axel Möller , Robert Rupprecht (Germany)
Registration No
On-line 2003 (currently both domains offline)
altermedia.info / altermedia-deutschland.info

Altermedia was an international neo-Nazi internet portal . The German offshoot, an Internet platform designed as a blog , was banned by the Federal Minister of the Interior 13 years after it went into operation in January 2016 . According to the constitution protection of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, it was a "nationwide significant right-wing extremist Internet news portal". The German site is said to have received around five million hits a year.

Content and structure

International

The platform, which originally came from France, had an international website. The main page is in the United States by Holocaust deniers and former leading Ku Klux Klan -member David Duke run. The German Altermedia website went online at the beginning of 2003 and also reflected the content of stoertebeker.net , which was created in 1997 . Separate portals existed for Switzerland and Austria at times. The main page has been empty since September 2013; there is only one common subpage for France and Belgium in French.

Altermedia Germany

In Germany, the portal claims to be aimed at diverse interest groups. It presented itself as an “alternative press” for everyone “who has no lobby ”. The platform attempted to tie in with the corresponding tradition of new social movements and oriented itself (optically as well) on the Indymedia portal , which, according to the protection of the constitution, is mainly used by the movement critical of globalization and also by autonomous groups who are prepared to use violence .

The operator's own contributions were published on the website, as well as messages taken from other sources that were ideologically covered and commented on. According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the aim was to "create a counter-public from a right-wing extremist perspective". The posted messages and user comments reflected a right-wing agenda, with the ongoing spread of anti-Semitic propaganda, Holocaust-denying and racist content. The state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania stated that it was known that “in the articles and comments, a radically anti-Semitic and neo-national socialist attitude of the person responsible and the commentators becomes clear”. In contrast to Indymedia, Altermedia did not allow any unmoderated contributions from users of the portal.

Altermedia was highly regarded within the neo-Nazi scene, but still controversial and was particularly strongly rejected by the NPD party because the leadership role of the NPD within German right-wing extremism was critically discussed and internal party disputes and gossip issues were made public. Constitutional protectionists, journalists and scientists obtained a large amount of information about internal events within the right-wing extremist scene.

Law enforcement and prohibition in Germany

In March 2011, Axel Möller , who founded the portal in 1997 as Störtebeker-Netz , was sentenced to a fine of 3,000 euros as the editor-in-chief of the site ; he withdrew his appeal against this judgment in May 2011. On August 5th of that year, the website's US-registered domain was shut down. A new domain has been registered for the German website.

In October 2011 Möller and another “editor” of the platform, Robert Rupprecht, were sentenced to prison terms of 30 and 27 months. The charges included sedition , the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations and calls for criminal offenses. After Möller's imprisonment, the website continued to operate, but its importance gradually declined, also because social networks replaced Altermedia as a virtual meeting place for the neo-Nazi scenes. A new domain located in the USA was blocked by the US hoster on September 8, 2012 after the jugendschutz.net initiative came into direct contact. Möller's prison sentence was extended by one year in March 2013 for further inciting criminal offenses. Möller served the sentence in full until May 28, 2015.

In 2015 Jeffrey Schoep , chairman of the US National Socialist Movement , was responsible for the altermedia-deutschland.info domain , which was hosted in Russia at the time .

On January 27, 2016, the Federal Criminal Police Office carried out searches of several people from the management level of Altermedia Germany in four federal states in the course of investigations by the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Karlsruhe for the formation of a criminal association . Two administrators of the website from Lage and St. Georgen in the Black Forest were arrested. German investigators also asked Russian authorities to shut down the portal's server in Russia . Federal Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maizière banned the operating association according to Section 3 of the Association Act . He explained that the portal promotes and enables "the dissemination of the worst racist and xenophobic comments and contributions in which crimes against foreigners are defended, called for crimes and acts of National Socialism are justified". This is not compatible with the free and democratic basic order .

The ban also included e-mail services obtained from Altermedia via "0x300", an offer from Dortmund neo-Nazi Dennis Giemsch .

One of the administrators arrested in 2016 ran as a candidate for the German League for People and Homeland for the district council of the Schwarzwald-Baar district in the 2014 municipal elections. A few days before his arrest, he had participated as a steward in a demonstration against refugee homes.

The attorney general at the Federal High has on 29 December 2016 the State Security Division of the Higher Regional Court of Stuttgart indicted five people aged 28 and 63 years on suspicion of forming a right-wing extremist criminal organization. In February 2018, the trial ended with an unconditional prison sentence for the main defendant and suspended sentences for three additional defendants.

literature

  • Hendrik Bender and Cathrin Erbstößer: The leading medium of the scene: Altermedia - a content analysis , in: Christoph Busch (Ed.): Right-wing radicalism in the Internet , Siegen University Press , Siegen 2010, ISBN 978-3-936533-31-6 , p. 248– 267.
  • Juliane Wetzel : Altermedia , in: Wolfgang Benz (Hrsg.): Handbuch des Antisemitismus . Anti-Semitism in Past and Present , Volume 5: Organizations, Institutions, Movements , De Gruyter Saur, Berlin / Boston 2012, ISBN 978-3-598-24078-2 , pp. 20 f.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Raid against neo-Nazi platform "Altermedia" . Time online from January 27, 2016
  2. ^ A b Trial against neo-Nazi portal Altermedia - right-wing extremist Internet hunters in the network of justice , Süddeutsche Zeitung, October 4, 2011.
  3. ^ A b Right-wing extremism: Nationwide raid against neo-Nazi platform "Altermedia" , Spiegel Online , January 27, 2016.
  4. ↑ a b Constitutional Protection Report Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 2009, p. 13
  5. ^ Right Internet Platform - Late charges against Altermedia . Frankfurter Rundschau, January 25, 2011
  6. ↑ Stephan Braun, Alexander Geisler, Martin Gerster: Strategies of the extreme right: Background analysis answers . VS Verlag, 2009, p. 296.
  7. ↑ a b Thomas Pfeiffer : An expressway to the people . In: Thomas Greven : Globalized right-wing extremism? The extremist right in the era of globalization . VS Verlag, 2006, pp. 172-176.
  8. ^ "Altermedia" - a brown echo from the past , tagesschau.de, January 27, 2016.
  9. ↑ "Altermedia" operator withdraws appeal. A crushing evidence , taz, May 18, 2011.
  10. ↑ Offline: neo-Nazi website Altermedia blocked , August 7, 2011, right end , accessed November 15, 2016
  11. ^ Operator of Altermedia condemned , taz, October 26, 2011.
  12. ^ "Altermedia" - a brown echo from the past , tagesschau.de, January 27, 2016.
  13. ^ After the blocking of Altermedia Germany: Right-wing extremists threaten youth protectionists , Süddeutsche Zeitung, September 12, 2012.
  14. ↑ Another Altermedia judgment , LOBBI, July 16, 2013.
  15. ↑ Release from prison: Ex-Altermedia operator can continue the fight against the system , terminus on the right, May 28, 2015.
  16. ^ Whois Registry . Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  17. ↑ a b Federal Ministry of the Interior: Announcement of a ban on associations against "Altermedia Germany" from January 4, 2016 ( BAnz AT January 27 , 2016 B1 ), non-appealable: BAnz AT April 8, 2016 B1
  18. ↑ De Maizière bans “Altermedia” , tagesspiegel.de, January 27, 2016.
  19. ↑ Right-wing extremist Internet portal "Altermedia" prohibited , n24.de, January 27, 2016.
  20. ^ Neo-Nazi page Altermedia: The last demonstration before we go to jail , Südkurier, January 29, 2016.
  21. ↑ https://www.generalbundesanwalt.de/de/showpress.php?themenid=19&newsid=665
  22. ↑ https://www.n-tv.de/politik/Macher-von-Neonazi-Seite-muss-hinter-Gitter-article20275291.html , NTV, February 8, 2018