Just be aware that this law didn't change that much, the legal situation was already horrendous in Germany before that due to the "Mitstörerhaftung".
If you run a website in Germany you are liable for any and all content on your website, this includes user submitted content like comments.
Add to that the fact that Germany has libel laws and considers Holocaust denial a crime and it's not surprising at all that barely any German websites allow for comments and if they do it's pretty much only moderated comments.
While this might not be "direct censorship", it has the de-facto effect of censorship by suppressing "unpopular" opinions and putting scissors in people's head if they want their opinions to be published.
What's preventing people to host German sites from an entity outside of Germany though? For instance, if I lived just across the border in the Netherlands and hosted a popular blog with unmoderated comments. What could they even do?
> What's preventing people to host German sites from an entity outside of Germany though?
Nothing at all, that's the thing German legislators seem completely ignorant about like a lot of other facts about the Internet. But what German news company would go that route? Not a single one because it would make them look like they want to "break the law on purpose".
So they all keep on hosting in Germany and moderating their comments or sometimes do not allow them at all because certain topics are way too much effort to moderate.
Keep in mind: This has been the state of things for decades and if you ask any regular ass German about this they wouldn't even know about it and instead keep on complaining how it's media companies who are censoring them and their opinions, even tho these companies are pretty much forced to do so by German laws, at least if they want to prevent massive legal issues for themselves.
It's a very comparable system to how Germany censors/bans media like movies, music or video games. It's not the German government "banning" certain media, the German government merely puts very heavy restrictions on certain media, which, for all purpose and effect, makes it impossible to sell them.
That's how you create an system of censorship even when your Grundgesetz (German constitution) quite clearly states "There shall be no censorship", just don't call it censorship but rather "youth protection" and you are a-okay.
> Nothing at all, that's the thing German legislators seem completely ignorant about like a lot of other facts about the Internet.
Oh, they are well aware of that. However, they rightfully see technology alone not as a valid reason to stop caring about something. If you target the German market from abroad, they will try to apply German law. If you make it obvious by moving an already existing operation abroad without noticeable change to the user doubly so. Why should the physical location of the server change anything? Usually the people arguing against regulation say that there are no borders in the internet. Somehow that argument is only used when it suits them.
This is not unique to the internet. Radio stations that targeted other countries learned the same lesson 40 years ago. The same happens to people who try moving their financial assets to some tropical island. Just because technically the money isn't in the country anymore does not mean the government gives up on taxing.
Dunno, they could persuade the Netherlands to prosecute under its own laws?
Merkel also started mentioning regulating the Internet around the G20 meeting and even before that. She's been quite evasive though, only giving some hints, since they have elections in Germany this fall and there would be no talk of pensions or censorship before that. So better watch out for EU-wide Internet censorship using the German model.
If you run a website in Germany you are liable for any and all content on your website, this includes user submitted content like comments.
Add to that the fact that Germany has libel laws and considers Holocaust denial a crime and it's not surprising at all that barely any German websites allow for comments and if they do it's pretty much only moderated comments.
While this might not be "direct censorship", it has the de-facto effect of censorship by suppressing "unpopular" opinions and putting scissors in people's head if they want their opinions to be published.