ABSTRACT
Although contemporary Germany is no longer a corporatist country as it was until the 1990s, Germany’s domestic interest configuration still shows a tight coordination among interest groups. During the Cold War and the reconstruction of Germany, the federal government (Bundesregierung), the private sector, and strong trade unions cooperated tightly to produce a stable and robust economy. National security was strictly a matter for NATO. After 1989, cooperation between the three players (the government, business, and trade unions) deteriorated. The government is wary about letting the private sector into national security, although it is also perfectly aware that, when it comes to Germany’s NII, like all other advanced countries, there is no other alternative. Controlling the Internet for the federal government is mostly protecting the NII, with a few considerable exceptions in monitoring content. Internet stakeholders (the government, the ICT sector, and civil liberties NGOs), however, still debate the typology and dimension of cyber-threats. According to the Working Group on Infrastructure Protection (AKSIS), ICT business executives preferred low government intervention in the NII and were skeptical of cyberterrorism (Wigert, 2004e). A simulated cyber-terrorist attack in November 2001 (CYTEX) highlighted weak points in the NII but also confirmed the skepticism (Hutter, 2002). Under these circumstances, even if the Red – Green cabinet had been inclined to do so, any attempts at forcing a strong securitization move would have failed. With the backing of at least a portion of public opinion, the government
deems it necessary to prevent the diffusion of neo-Nazi propaganda, Holocaust denial, and hatred speech or child pornography on the Internet. German civil liberties NGOs have, to some extent, opposed these policies, but they too support banning child pornography. Neo-Nazi material is more controversial, however, since civil liberties activists tend to think that, albeit despicable, it too should be protected by freedom of speech. Since the collective guilt for the past is still very strongly felt in all segments of German society, resistance to these policies has also come from American NGOs, on the basis that freedom of speech also applies to hatred or Nazi material on-line.
