German bans far-left internet platform

The German Interior Ministry has banned a controversial website of central importance to the country's far-left activist scene.

A corresponding injunction was presented to the three Freiburg-based operators of the platform by government authorities. The webpage ran "contrary to criminal law in its purpose and activity", an explanatory statement from the ministry reads.

The symbols of the association behind the online site "linksunten.indymedia.org." were also banned.

Nevertheless, "indymedia's" webpage and twitter channel could still be reached as of Friday midday local time (CET).

German security authorities have been investigating the platform for years on the suspicion that it provides a forum to potentially violent left-wing extremists. Founded in 2009, "indymedia" has described itself as having become "the most important radical left website in the German speaking world."

The webpages' 2016 public statement further boasted that "(e)very day thousands of left-wing activists find information on the site about antagonistic movements, be it occupations, attacks, debates or wage battles."

The digital platform allows users to publish articles anonymously which are curated by its moderators. The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has complained that a "law-free online zone" had been created in this fashion.

Due to the comprehensive encryption offered, authorities struggled to identify individuals who regularly authored confessions of vandalism against the property of government officials, or published calls to violence and manuals for the construction of Molotov cocktails.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution believes that roughly 30 people are responsible for running the site. The outright ban of "indymedia" still comes as a surprise to many observers.

German media speculates that it may be related to far-left riots which caused widespread damage in Hamburg during the city's G20 summit in early July.

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said in response that Germany needed to "take a clear stance against left-wing extremism just as applied to right-wing extremism."

Next week, the Christian Democratic Union politicians would announce their intention to make a public security declaration in Berlin which will include demands for tougher prosecution of Germany's far-left scene.