German Internet Blocking Bill Suspension

In a “turn back the clock” action, the German Liberal Party (FDP) – which is negotiating with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Party (CDU) on the programme of the coalition government – is pushing a suspension of the blocking bill some feared would hamper information flow on the internet. The much debated bill, passed earlier this year by the former coalition of the CDU and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), would have obliged internet service providers to block access of their customers to third-party websites with allegedly child pornographic content. The bill had been criticised by civil rights organisations and technical experts as ineffective and a possible first step to internet censorship. Civil rights organisations that published details about the deal applauded the suspension, during which the Federal Police is ordered to close down child pornography sites at the source instead of sending a blocking list to the ISPs. After one year, the situation is to be revisited, according to the coalition partners.

Changes to two other internet-related bills also were demanded in the negotiations by high-ranking FDP member Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, justice minister between 1992 and 1996, who will possibly step up again to this post. The changes are data retention legislation following the EU data retention directive, and online searches of personal computers. For both, the FDP only managed to get limitations in place, for example injunctions for the online searches have to come from the Federal Court of Justice. For data retention, access to the communication data stored at ISP will be narrowed to severe cases. Many civil rights activists criticised these changes as marginal and announced plans to continue their fight. Several FDP politicians have been a party to constitutional complaints against the data retention and online searches legislation.