The Office for the Protection of the Constitution now observes the Internet platform “de.Indymedia” as a proven left-wing extremist effort. This emerges from the annual report of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution for 2021, which was published in Berlin on Tuesday.

About two years ago, the domestic secret service classified the platform, on which letters of confession, calls for action and addresses of alleged political opponents are regularly published, as a suspected case of left-wing extremism. The reason given by the Cologne authorities at the time was, among other things, that after clashes between autonomists and the police in Leipzig, attempts had been made to justify the violence on the website.

The current report for the protection of the constitution now says that the “moderation collectives” of the website, which is operated according to the “open posting” principle, delete spam posts and content that was allegedly published there “under false flags” – for example by right-wing extremists. Occasionally, posts with a left-wing extremist background would also be removed “if they could pose a significant threat to people’s life or limb”, such as instructions for the construction of explosive devices. On the other hand, numerous allegations of serious left-wing extremist crimes would not be removed. “Overall, the contributions on ‘de.indymedia’ that were not removed clearly show an anti-constitutional line,” the report says.

In January 2020, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig confirmed the ban on the Internet platform “Linksunten.Indymedia”, which had been imposed in 2017 by the then Federal Minister of the Interior, Thomas de Maizière (CDU). According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, activities after the ban had shifted from this platform to “de.Indymedia”.

If there is a suspicion, there is already “sufficiently weighty factual evidence” for anti-constitutional efforts. This means that the secret service can evaluate and store personal data. Under strict conditions, intelligence means can also be used, i.e. information can be obtained secretly. If the suspicion is confirmed, a group is classified as a proven extremist effort.