Germany’s Biggest “Net provider Bans 1,500 sites

Germany's largest Internet provider, Deutsche Telekom, cut access to nearly 1,500 internet sites on Thursday, January 25. The primary target of this ban is what has been deemed to be “neo-Nazi” propaganda. Inexplicably other sites included various financial services and even “Santa Claus On-line.”

Computer users in Germany were very upset and accused Deutsche Telekom of limiting the free flow of information.

On Wednesday, prosecutors said that they were considering filing incitement charges against Deutsche Telekom and CompuServe for allegedly aiding in the distribution of revisionist articles such as The Holocaust: Let's Hear Both Sides and “Did 6 Million Really Die?”

Revisionist and neo-Nazi materials are illegal to print or distribute in Germany. Violators are often charged with inciting racial hatred. Telekom's T-online service eliminated access to all sites on a California computer as a “preventive measure” while waiting to hear back from the prosecutor.

This current wave of censorship comes only a month after German prosecutors announced that they had identified 200 “sexually related” Internet newsgroups which were illegal under new restrictive German laws.

Adapted from: The Associated Press 01-27-96