Blocking of Internet content in Germany

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Several websites and internet services have been affected by the blocking of internet content in Germany for various reasons. Further closures on a larger scale were requested.

Previous closures

Usenet bans 1991/1992

In the December 1991 issue, the magazine Emma reported on pornography on Usenet , which at the time was distributed almost exclusively via university servers in Germany. Emma derived a "porn scandal" from this, according to which professors and students abused university computer technology to consume pornography. Emma argued that this data tied up bandwidth and storage space on tax-financed infrastructure for non-university purposes. Emma pointed negatively to sadomasochistic pornography and supported this with a picture of the comic artist Dolcett .

As a result of this publication, other media - including the taz , the Südwestfunk and the Süddeutsche Rundfunk  - picked up the facts and critical conclusions assumed by Emma and reported in a similar tenor. Several universities had certain groups blocked as a result of media coverage from the Usenet, which was previously forwarded uncensored. In some cases this also applied to forums that were not intended to disseminate pornography but were discussion forums for sexual minorities.

Blocking against www.xs4all.nl (1996/1997)

In early April 1997, the locked DFN the IP addresses of the Dutch provider XS4ALL for several days. The reason was the opinion of the Federal Prosecutor's Office that providers might have to expect prosecution for aiding and abetting if they did not access the magazine Radikal , against which 210 investigations were carried out between 1984 and 1997  on suspicion of the formation of a terrorist organization , in their data networks prevent. The Federal Prosecutor's Office had previously attempted legal assistance in December 1996 to take action against issue 154 of the magazine in the Netherlands .

Before that, in September 1996, a self-regulation of the Internet industry, the Internet Content Task Force (ICTF) of the Association of the German Internet Industry , ECO , recommended that its affiliated companies block it due to possible criminal prosecution despite fundamental concerns.

As a countermeasure against the IP block, xs4all.nl started to change its IP address regularly , similar to dynamic DNS . As a result, the block was extended to the entire IP range assigned by RIPE NCC to xs4all.nl, which led to massive overblocking . As a result of the worldwide rejection of the block, the Radikal website was saved as a mirror on more and more servers , so that these servers should have been blocked as well. Since some providers like T-Online did not block either, the Federal Prosecutor's Office stopped its pressure at this escalation stage.

As part of this blocking action, the homepage of the then deputy PDS chairwoman Angela Marquardt was blocked because of a link and charges were brought against her at the Tiergarten district court . The court acquitted her.

Closures in North Rhine-Westphalia (2001)

At the beginning of October 2001, the Düsseldorf district government, under the leadership of the District President Jürgen Büssow (SPD), accused 56 Internet providers of distributing illegal content in accordance with the state treaty on media services , and asked the providers to close three websites with right-wing extremist content as well as the shocker side rotten.com , which deals with the representation of terrorism , brutal murders , suicides , cruelty or rape , among other things . The providers were threatened with a fine of up to one million marks or legal proceedings if they did not comply with the request. Twelve of the providers concerned complied with the request, but others complained against it. Büssow also called for a nationwide uniform control of the Internet.

The measure was sharply criticized, especially by Jörg Tauss , the then commissioner for new media of the SPD parliamentary group. Martina Krogmann (CDU), who was the CDU's Internet commissioner at the time and later advocate of Internet bans to combat child pornography , also condemned the calls for Internet bans as a “populist approach”. In connection with allegations of censorship at the time, she warned that more and more “unsuspecting people jump on the advance of an individual”. This would be “absurd and harmful”, would feed off “a media term from the 1970s” and “cause considerable damage to the Internet and the network economy”.

Since rotten.com was excluded from the block after protests and the right-wing extremist Front14 had since gone offline , only the Stormfront Internet forum and the website of the NSDAP organizational structure of neo-Nazi Gary Lauck remained blocked.

In June 2005, the responsible higher administrative court confirmed the blocking orders as legal. A later analysis revealed that, on the one hand, all providers blocked more content than required and, on the other hand, many did not completely block the content to be blocked. Since the Düsseldorf district government has not yet withdrawn the blocking orders, the blocking continues to this day. However, both websites can be accessed again from the Deutsche Telekom network.

Blocking of several pornographic websites by Arcor (2007)

Between September 11th and 17th, 2007, the German Internet access provider Arcor blocked access to YouPorn and other websites with freely accessible pornographic material for all of its 2.4 million customers. According to Arcors, the blocking took place voluntarily at the request of a provider of paid pornographic material on the grounds that the pages concerned violated German law on the protection of minors in the media by allowing access without proof of age.

The block was lifted after it became clear that the blocking of the IP addresses of the blocked sites also affected many other offers without pornographic content.

On October 19, 2007, Kirchberg Logistik GmbH (which itself operates a website with pornographic content, for example offers erotic films for download) obtained an injunction from the Frankfurt am Main regional court , according to which Arcor had to block access to the website , whereby Arcor this block is implemented by means of DNS manipulation. As a result, warnings were issued against 19 other German Internet service providers, who did not, however, move them to block access, and preliminary injunctions were applied for against the Freenet subsidiary KielNET and Tele2 in order to force these providers to implement an access block, as had previously been the case with Arcor.

On November 23, the Kiel Regional Court rejected the injunction requested by Kirchberg Logistik on the grounds that the provision of Internet access was content-neutral and that KielNET was therefore not responsible for the content of the pages. The day before, Arcor decided to take legal action against the temporary injunction, as it did not want to be the only provider obliged to block it. On December 12, the Düsseldorf Regional Court also rejected the application for a preliminary injunction against Tele2 and denied that Internet access providers were obliged to maintain safety . Subsequently, the third civil chamber of the Frankfurt am Main Regional Court and the Frankfurt am Main Higher Regional Court refused an interim injunction against Arcor, which Arcor had applied for by ueber18.de managing director Tobias Huch as a protest against the blocking order of the sixth civil chamber and its effects on the freedom of recipients Blocking the search engine should oblige Google , because Google, like YouPorn, also allows access to a large number of pornographic content without sufficient age verification.

On February 8, 2008, the 12th Civil Chamber of the Frankfurt Regional Court followed the arguments of the Higher Regional Court and canceled the blocking order obtained against Arcor in the main proceedings, whereupon Arcor removed the installed DNS block from YouPorn.

Blocking against gutenberg.org (2018)

Since March 1, 2018, all users with a German IPv4 address have been excluded from the gutenberg.org service. The reason is a lawsuit brought by S. Fischer Verlag.

Blocking of kinox.to and other streaming portals (2018)

Constantin Film was able to obtain an injunction against Vodafone , which demands that Vodafone block all cable customers from accessing kinox.to . The blocking does not affect DSL and cellular customers. The block is a DNS block that is generally considered to be ineffective because it is very easy to bypass. Vodafone took action against the preliminary injunction at the Munich Higher Regional Court. The Higher Regional Court confirmed Constantin Film's view, which means that Vodafone must continue to block. Since December 19, 2018, Vodafone has also blocked the Serienstream and Burning Series portals . The reason for this is a complaint from Sky , whose series are made available on these portals. In addition, libgen.io and boerse.to are also blocked.

Law to make access to child pornographic content more difficult in communication networks

On April 17, 2009 , the Federal Government signed a contract with five major Internet providers to block child pornography sites on the Internet . Internet offers should be blocked by them according to a daily updated list of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). With the law to combat child pornography in communication networks , access providers ( providers ) in Germany should be obliged to make access to websites with criminal content specified by the Federal Criminal Police Office more difficult. According to the law, Internet providers should be obliged to keep the blacklists created by the Federal Criminal Police Office secret. According to a subsequent amendment to the draft law under Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries , attempts to access these pages should also be logged at the same time and used for law enforcement purposes. In accordance with Section 8a (1) of the draft law, websites that contain child pornography or refer to it with a hyperlink should be blocked: “ As part of its tasks as a central office under Section 2 of the Federal Criminal Police Office Act, the Federal Criminal Police Office maintains a list of fully qualified domain names , Internet protocol addresses and target addresses of telemedia offers that contain child pornography according to Section 184b of the Criminal Code or the purpose of which is to refer to such telemedia offers (blacklist). “The draft did not provide for an independent review of the blacklists by judges, control commissions or similar bodies.

In April 2011 the federal government decided to have the law that had already been passed but never applied. The final repeal took place on December 1, 2011 by resolution of the Bundestag .

Further required or planned closures

Even before the law was passed, blocking requests from a wide variety of topics had been put forward.

Before the resolution of the Access Difficulty Act

Planned blocking of right-wing extremist websites in Saxony-Anhalt (2008)

The SPD in Saxony-Anhalt wants to block access to right-wing extremist websites. In schools, educational and youth recreational facilities, access to websites with right-wing extremist content is to be blocked. One wants to take right-wing extremists one of the most important platforms for their propaganda. At the end of 2008, Interior Minister Holger Hövelmann presented a list of currently 231 websites that are recommended to be blocked. This list should be updated continuously.

Violence pages

After the rampage in Winnenden , the Federal Minister of Education at the time, Annette Schavan (CDU), suggested that “sites of violence” should be blocked. Schavan did not elaborate on the type of violence and the representation of it: real violence as it can be seen in war reporting, fictional violence as it can be seen in films and computer games, or in general any form of violence, provided it is glorified and / or commented on.

Pages with dubious copyright

The blocking of websites is advocated by representatives of the music industry , such as Dieter Gorny , Chairman of the Board of the Federal Association of the Music Industry . They hope for an expansion of the Internet regulatory measures to protect intellectual property .

Gambling

Representatives of the book trade and the Hessian state government are calling for internet bans on gambling sites and copyright infringements.

In the draft (as of April 2011) of the State Treaty on Gambling Amending , Article 9, Paragraph 1, Clause 3, No. 5 stated: [The competent authority can in particular] service providers within the meaning of the Telemedia Act, in particular access providers and registrars, after prior notification of unauthorized gambling offers Prohibit participation in access to unauthorized gambling offers. The fundamental right of telecommunications secrecy (Article 10 of the Basic Law) is restricted in this respect ... In the revised draft of October 6, 2011, this regulation was deleted.

According to the resolution of the Access Difficulty Act

On the evening of the law being passed, it became known that the Bundestag member and CDU Secretary General Thomas Strobl would like to extend the blocking of Internet sites to so-called killer games : “We are seriously examining this”. The domestic political spokesman for the CSU parliamentary group, Hans-Peter Uhl , does not rule out the expansion of Internet blocks to non-child pornographic content. In the next legislative period, the CSU wants to examine “what else needs to be done and whether the method works”. The North Rhine-Westphalian Prime Minister Jürgen Rüttgers (CDU) advocated that controversial websites should not only be blocked when a court ruling has been issued: "Every infrastructure needs its street signs". Saxony-Anhalt's Justice Minister Angela Kolb-Janssen (SPD) advocates Europe-wide internet bans.

On July 9, 2009, Romani Rose , chairman of the Central Council of German Sinti and Roma , called for the blockade to be extended to include "hateful sides" . He advocated that right-wing extremist content should also be blocked by the Federal Criminal Police Office. If criminally relevant material is blocked, this is not censorship in his view.

In an interview with the online edition of the Hamburger Abendblatt, Federal Family Minister Ursula von der Leyen announced on August 2, 2009 that she wanted to combat further content, such as insults . According to her statement, freedom of expression should be retained “in the right measure”. In a clarification, the ministry said that von der Leyen had not announced any concrete action against further content.

At the end of September 2009, the Amok group of experts recommended using the existing regulations in order to put all absolutely impermissible foreign offers on the corresponding lists and to oblige the Internet providers to block them.

In October 2009, the child protection organizations UNICEF , ECPAT , Save the Children and Innocence in Danger criticized in a joint statement a coalition agreement to temporarily stop web blocking and have deletions carried out. The web blocks are a first important step to protect children and young people against sexual exploitation in the new media . Deleting the content on foreign servers is also not possible. The child protection organizations are represented by their umbrella organization, the European NGO Alliance for Child Safety Online .

In October 2009, Wolfgang Schäuble admitted technical errors in the Access Difficulty Act and declared that the law was also created in the final spurt of the election campaign to depose the CDU against other parties.

At the beginning of April 2011 it became known that one of the central founding goals of the working group against Internet blocking and censorship was being implemented: the federal government decided to abolish the Access Restriction Act.

Technical weaknesses

The current technical implementation of closures through DNS hijacking is not suitable to completely block access to indexed pages, but only complicates since the stop sides of these relatively simple means can be circumvented . The IT security researcher Hannes Federrath, who was invited by the German Bundestag as an expert, described the Internet blocking as "completely ineffective". One way to bypass the block is to use uncensored DNS servers , such as those set up by the FoeBuD association in response to the block in Germany. In addition to manual entry of alternative DNS servers, automatic entry via script or registry file is also possible, even for IT laypeople.

See also

literature

Web links

Wikiquote: blocking of websites in Germany  - quotations
 Wikinews: Online petition submitted to the German Bundestag against “indexing and blocking of websites”  - message

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The paper tiger
  2. ↑ cf. Arne Hoffmann: The Lexicon of Sadomasochism. The Inside Guide to Dark Eroticism: Practices and Instruments, Persons and Institutions, Literature and Film, Politics and Philosophy , p. 343, Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf 2000, ISBN 3-896-022-903 .
  3. ↑ The attempt at censorship on the Internet , link collection at nadir.org
  4. ↑ Statement by the BGH with a report on xs4all.nl  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Bundestag committee printed matter 16 (9) 1555, May 24, 2009@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bundestag.de  
  5. ↑ radikal mirror list as of 27-9-1996 , mail to fitug about mirror list , September 27, 1996
  6. ↑ TP: Radikal case finally shelved , Telepolis heise.de, 30 Jan 1998
  7. ↑ TP: Hyperlink process: acquittal for Angela Marquardt , Telepolis heise.de, undated
  8. ↑ When the postman has to read all the letters Berliner Zeitung of November 23, 2001
  9. ↑ a b Violent protests against new web censorship ideas
  10. ^ Lessons on the Internet , University of Munich , undated
  11. ↑ Administrative court Düsseldorf confirms blocking order in North Rhine-Westphalia , Heise of June 14, 2005
  12. ↑ a b Disguise Tactics - The arguments for child porn bans run nowhere , c't 9/09
  13. ↑ Arcor blocks access to porn sites , heise online, September 10, 2007.
  14. ↑ Konrad Lischka: The role model for the film industry. Porn providers fight against web competition , Spiegel Online, September 11, 2007.
  15. ↑ Konrad Lischka: Incorrect censorship method. Arcor stops the porn filter , Spiegel Online, September 17, 2007.
  16. ↑ Stefan Krempl: Arcor installs easily bypassable network lock for YouPorn , heise online, October 24, 2007.
  17. ^ Konrad Lischka: Protection of minors. Wave of warnings urges Internet providers to censor the web , Spiegel Online, October 22, 2007.
  18. ↑ Ingo Pakalski: Court: Provider does not have to block porn sites. Interim injunction rejected by Kirchberg Logistik , Golem.de, 23 November 2007.
  19. ↑ Stefan Krempl: Arcor has lodged an objection to the YouPorn ban , heise online, November 22, 2007.
  20. ↑ Stefan Krempl: Another request to block porn sites rejected , heise online, December 13, 2007.
  21. ↑ LG Frankfurt: Access to animal pornography via GOOGLE does not have to be blocked . In: Press release from Huch Medien GmbH, December 13, 2007.
  22. ↑ OLG: Provider not responsible for network content. In: heise.de, January 23, 2008.
  23. ↑ Arcor no longer has to block YouPorn . In: heise.de, April 15, 2008.
  24. ↑ Gutenberg.org: S. Fischer Verlag criticizes lockout of German users In: heise.de, March 6, 2018.
  25. ↑ Network blocking: Vodafone must block kinox.to and save customer data (update). Retrieved on March 19, 2018 (German).
  26. ^ Legal dispute with Constantin Film: Vodafone must continue to block Kinox.to . In: Spiegel Online . June 15, 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed June 17, 2018]).
  27. ↑ Reactions to Vodafone's ban from BS.to & Serienstream.to. In: tarnkappe.info . December 20, 2018, accessed January 1, 2019 .
  28. ↑ Vodafone has to lock Library Genesis. In: tarnkappe.info . August 7, 2018, accessed April 1, 2019 .
  29. ↑ Boerse.to partially blocked by Vodafone. In: tarnkappe.info . March 25, 2019, accessed April 1, 2019 .
  30. ^ Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology : Draft of the law to combat child pornography in communication networks ( Memento of May 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). - Planned changes to the Telecommunications and Telemedia Act . (PDF; 36 kB)
  31. ↑ Punishment required for attempted access to child porn sites April 24, 2009
  32. ^ Report on tagesschau.de ( Memento from April 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), April 5, 2011
  33. ^ Bundestag overturns internet blocks , Frankfurter Rundschau , December 1, 2011
  34. ^ State Chancellery Saxony-Anhalt - Press release no .: 635/08 ( Memento from June 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  35. ↑ Blocking of 231 websites in public buildings . Focus Online, December 9, 2008
  36. ↑ Crime: Schavan: Blocking violence sites on the Internet
  37. ↑ Medienrechtsforum: Demands for the expansion of Internet blocks
  38. ↑ "It was knitted with a very hot needle"
  39. ↑ State Treaty on Gaming, draft version April 14, 2011 (PDF; 1.34 MB)
  40. ↑ Amending State Treaty on Gambling, draft version October 6, 2011
  41. ↑ Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger: Also block killer games
  42. ↑ Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger: CDU internal politician Uhl does not rule out the expansion of Internet bans
  43. ^ Dwdl.de: Rüttger's declaration of love: sentimentality instead of arguments
  44. ↑ SPD politician advocates Europe-wide web blocking
  45. ↑ Extension of the web blocks to hate propaganda required , heise.de July 9, 2009
  46. ↑ Karin Schädler: Fight against “Cyberhate” and racism - Sinti and Roma for Internet blocking , taz.de, July 9, 2009.
  47. ↑ Leyen: Internet threatens to "become a legally free chaos area" (U) . golem.de, August 2, 2009
  48. ^ Report of the Amok expert group: PREVENTION - INTERVENTION - VICTIM AID - MEDIA . 60. Recommendation, p. 57, September 25, 2009, accessed on October 2, 2009 (PDF; 1.6 MB)
  49. ↑ Heise Online: Mixed reactions to coalition agreements on domestic politics . October 16, 2009
  50. ↑ Unicef: Priority for child protection! Access barriers are an important step - further measures are necessary . October 16, 2009.
  51. ^ Ole Reissmann: FDP victory in civil rights - stop sign for Zensursula , October 16, 2009, SPON .
  52. ↑ hda / dpa: Stop signs on the Internet - Schäuble admits errors in network blocking , October 10, 2009, online z. B. under SPON .
  53. ↑ Tagesschau from April 6, 2011: Great approval for the end of the Internet locks: A "success for reason" ( Memento from April 8, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  54. ↑ Actionism does not help against child porn
  55. ↑ Against Internet blocking in a free society: FoeBuD sets up anti-censorship DNS server FoeBuD eV of April 17, 2009