The Commission for the Protection of Young Persons in the Media (KJM) of the German state media authorities decided unanimously on Thursday to impose a network ban on the porn site "xHamster".
The offer, which offers the whole range of pornography, from professionally produced films to secretly recorded videos and pictures, may no longer be accessible to German users because - it violates the protection of minors and has not taken sufficient precautions against children and young people who watch videos and photos.
There is no secure age verification system.
If you enter on xHamster that you are older than 18 years, you have access.
According to the KJM, this violates the Youth Media Protection State Treaty (JMStV) and is therefore illegal.
Michael Hanfeld
responsible editor for feuilleton online and "media".
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The blocking order was preceded by an odyssey that shows how difficult it is for media regulators to take action against illegal offers on the Internet.
First, the State Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, which took up the case, located the operator of xHamster - the company Hammy Media Ltd, run by two Russians.
based in Cyprus.
The State Media Authority then contacted the Cyprus media regulator.
In October 2019, they announced that they could not take action themselves, but would not mind if the Germans did something.
The state media authority informed the European Commission, the state government in Düsseldorf and the Federal Minister of State for Culture.
No reaction from Cyprus
Hammy Media was contacted but did not respond, the KJM determined that the company violated the protection of minors, and there was an administrative decision.
It could be served in May 2020, but was not enforceable in Cyprus.
The state media authority was now looking for the host provider, i.e. the company that sells the xhamster content on its servers.
The media supervisors came across the company Cloudflare Inc. In the next step, they turned to the Internet services through whose networks Cloudfare's servers play content - Vodafone and Telekom.
Finally, Cloudfare revealed that their servers play out content via the DataWeb Global Group BV network.
She replied that she had no access to the xhamster content and therefore could not ensure
that German users do not see the xhamster porn.
The DataWeb Global Group is based in the Netherlands.
So the state media authority of North Rhine-Westphalia contacted the responsible Commissariaat voor de Media.
In November 2020, the Commissariat announced that there was nothing to prevent colleagues from Düsseldorf from intervening.
Information about this situation was also sent to the EU, the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia and the federal government.
In the second round, the procedure of the first was repeated: hearing DataWeb Global Group, no reaction, the KJM decided that the Dutch had to block xhamster, administrative decision in June 2021, but it can be enforced just as little as before the first in Cyprus, because there is no corresponding agreement between the Netherlands and the Federal Republic.
The DataWeb Global Group is based in the Netherlands.
So the state media authority of North Rhine-Westphalia contacted the responsible Commissariaat voor de Media.
In November 2020, the Commissariat announced that there was nothing to prevent colleagues from Düsseldorf from intervening.
Information about this situation was also sent to the EU, the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia and the federal government.
In the second round, the procedure of the first was repeated: hearing DataWeb Global Group, no reaction, the KJM decided that the Dutch had to block xhamster, administrative decision in June 2021, but it can be enforced just as little as before the first in Cyprus, because there is no corresponding agreement between the Netherlands and the Federal Republic.
The DataWeb Global Group is based in the Netherlands.
So the state media authority of North Rhine-Westphalia contacted the responsible Commissariaat voor de Media.
In November 2020, the Commissariat announced that there was nothing to prevent colleagues from Düsseldorf from intervening.
Information about this situation was also sent to the EU, the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia and the federal government.
In the second round, the procedure of the first was repeated: hearing DataWeb Global Group, no reaction, the KJM decided that the Dutch had to block xhamster, administrative decision in June 2021, but it can be enforced just as little as before the first in Cyprus, because there is no corresponding agreement between the Netherlands and the Federal Republic.
In November 2020, the Commissariat announced that there was nothing to prevent colleagues from Düsseldorf from intervening.
Information about this situation was also sent to the EU, the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia and the federal government.
In the second round, the procedure of the first was repeated: hearing DataWeb Global Group, no reaction, the KJM decided that the Dutch had to block xhamster, administrative decision in June 2021, but it can be enforced just as little as before the first in Cyprus, because there is no corresponding agreement between the Netherlands and the Federal Republic.
In November 2020, the Commissariat announced that there was nothing to prevent colleagues from Düsseldorf from intervening.
Information about this situation was also sent to the EU, the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia and the federal government.
In the second round, the procedure of the first was repeated: hearing DataWeb Global Group, no reaction, the KJM decided that the Dutch had to block xhamster, administrative decision in June 2021, but it can be enforced just as little as before the first in Cyprus, because there is no corresponding agreement between the Netherlands and the Federal Republic.
You could lay down your arms there.
However, since the head of the state media authority of North Rhine-Westphalia, Tobias Schmid, applies the slogan "No Surrender", he and his colleagues from Bavaria, Berlin and Rhineland-Palatinate approached the "access providers", i.e. the big players in the business, the technical service providers that enable companies and private individuals to access the Internet, in Germany these are Telekom, 1&1, Alice, Freenet and Vodafone.
Since these companies are within reach, they have to implement the blocking decided by the KJM and - take xHamster from the network.
The network ban is the harshest sanction provided by the German Telemedia Act, it is unpopular and is quickly classified as "censorship".
"Of course, blocking the network is a dramatic intervention," says Tobias Schmid: "With this offer, however, the right to freedom of expression should not be affected too much.
It is simply a business with pornography and that at the expense of children and young people.” However, the ban that was achieved after tough struggles and research has one flaw.
It is directed against the "domain", i.e. the name.
If the Hammy operators change the name of xHamster to xrabbit, xdeer, xguinea pig or xhedgehog, the race starts all over again.