German government shuts down Indymedia

[Tahuti]

https://crimethinc.com/2017/08/25/g...s-down-indymedia-what-it-means-and-what-to-do

Basically, the German Constitutional Protection Agency has found that Indymedia contributes to anti-constitutional sentiment. As such, it claims, it proceeds to shut down the outlet. Is that a legal trick or a valid argument?

I wonder what CFC has to say to this.

 

[Kyriakos]

I doubt that many people in CFC know of indymedia. Eg i know it exists, but (to demonstrate lack of touch with such things) i only knew of the greek indymedia site, and its own similar reputation.
Not sure if the indymedia sites are a good thing or not. Also i am not sure if they can be tied to antifa violence. That said, i am not in favour of banning a website. Ultimately it is pointless anyway, cause it can exist elsewhere and word will spread through social media where it now is hosted. You article says that Germany is treating the people running indymedia as home terrorists, which is echoing of the Baader-Meinhof affair in the relatively near past: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction

 

[Ryika]

Two weeks late, ehh?

I've given a more detailed opinion in a few German forums, but in short: It's pathetic, and like most censorship, does exactly the opposite of what it's meant to achieve. The people who were using it now have a victim narrative to increase their numbers, and are already regrouping in new places. Even the police called this dumb, because they were using it as a source of information. Absolutely nothing was gained by this idiotic and nonsensical act of censorship.

Of course I also want to note that the article you've posted is ridiculous and one-sided.

 

[Synobun]

Moderator Action: Please provide more content in your OP. Since you are just linking to an article, provide a summary and inform CFC's community about what we're supposed to have an opinion on.

 

[Tahuti]

I doubt that many people in CFC know of indymedia. Eg i know it exists, but (to demonstrate lack of touch with such things) i only knew of the greek indymedia site, and its own similar reputation.
Not sure if the indymedia sites are a good thing or not. Also i am not sure if they can be tied to antifa violence. That said, i am not in favour of banning a website. Ultimately it is pointless anyway, cause it can exist elsewhere and word will spread through social media where it now is hosted. You article says that Germany is treating the people running indymedia as home terrorists, which is echoing of the Baader-Meinhof affair in the relatively near past: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction

Shutting down any media, whether it's Breitbart or Indymedia is generally not a good idea. The former case is being effectively ridiculed like it is here.

The justufication of the German authorities is that Linksunten promote specifically promote anti-constitutional sentiment by allowing for anonymous comments.

 

[Terxpahseyton]

The legal issue is that they used a law on criminal organizations to ban the website.
But... it is a website. Not an organization. And there is even the argument, that it is not only a website, but more like a kind of newspaper. Which would grant that website special protection and would make it all the harder to move against it.
I think there is a decent chance that the courts will step in.

Without the recent G20 summit this would not have happened. The chaos and looting and violence their by far-lefties was good for a lot of public outrage and sensationalistic hyperbole, and conservatives were eager to have those delusional bums pay. And with the German federal election coming up, the German conservative party made a law-and-order-move to send a message.

 

[Tahuti]

So it is an election stunt? There seems to have been a lot of those lately in Germany.

 

[metatron]

So it is an election stunt? There seems to have been a lot of those lately in Germany.

Yes. Probably.
But there's danger of you misinterpreting the level.
This is not some large scale play.
It's more a placation of strict conservatives, you know, so they can't say the government did "nothing".
You know, like "there you have your piece of flesh, now be quiet and go to your corner".

 

[Colon]

So it is an election stunt? There seems to have been a lot of those lately in Germany.

Referring to the anti-fake-news measures? Yeah, the Germans authorithies do seem to believe that you can just legislate away lies and extremism. Doesn't seem to occur to them how so similar their reasoning is to those of Erdogan and his ilk.

 

[Ryika]

It's not just similar, it's exactly the same. The only difference is really how broadly they apply that thought process, and that stems from the different goals they have.

 

[luiz]

I doubt that many people in CFC know of indymedia. Eg i know it exists, but (to demonstrate lack of touch with such things) i only knew of the greek indymedia site, and its own similar reputation.
Not sure if the indymedia sites are a good thing or not. Also i am not sure if they can be tied to antifa violence. That said, i am not in favour of banning a website. Ultimately it is pointless anyway, cause it can exist elsewhere and word will spread through social media where it now is hosted. You article says that Germany is treating the people running indymedia as home terrorists, which is echoing of the Baader-Meinhof affair in the relatively near past: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction

But the Baader-Meinhof gang were domestic terrorists, if this term has any meaning at all it surely applies to them.

 

[Colon]

I don't think West Germany ever banned communist publications. Perhaps a resident German can point to cases.

It's not just similar, it's exactly the same. The only difference is really how broadly they apply that thought process, and that stems from the different goals they have.

We'll see how the courts feel about shutting down the site. I really doubt the European Court of Human Rights going along with it if the matter were to end up there.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I don't think West Germany ever banned communist publications. Perhaps a resident German can point to cases.

The KPD (Communist Party of Germany) was disbanded by the govt. in 1956, I think the same goes for their outlets (one or more newspapers) though I am not sure. It was the last grasp of McCarthyism in West Germany, I canot think of any recent censorship on leftist news outlets.

 

[Tahuti]

The KPD (Communist Party of Germany) was disbanded by the govt. in 1956, I think the same goes for their outlets (one or more newspapers) though I am not sure. It was the last grasp of McCarthyism in West Germany, I canot think of any recent censorship on leftist news outlets.

I don't think Germany had a specific Anti-Communist Witchhunt culture after the Second World War, like it had during the early Weimar years and the Völkisch régime, as I interpret the FRG crackdown on communist parties as primarily a geopolitical step to drift into the US fold rather than as an ideological paranoia as in the contemporary U.S. or in Germany itself pre-1945.