Germany's far right party AfD claims its website knocked offline by hackers
- Country:
- Germany
A far-right German politician's website that let pupils denounce teachers for being too political was knocked offline within hours of its launch by what its creator said was a hacker attack.
On Friday, the website, launched by Stefan Raepple who represents the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the regional parliament of Baden-Wuerttemberg, was showing a message promising to return shortly. "Our site was hit by a hacker attack," the message read.
Justice Minister Katarina Barley labelled the denunciation tactic a "tool of dictators" familiar from Communist East Germany and the Nazi era.
Reuters was unable to confirm independently that the site had been hacked, and if so, by whom.
The AfD's deputy leader Georg Pazderski said the site was necessary as pupils in many schools were exposed to a "one-sided left-green worldview".
The site mirrors tactics used by other far-right parties.
In the Netherlands, anti-immigration politician Geert Wilders caused outrage when he invited people to denounce "nuisance" immigrants in their neighbourhood.
(With inputs from agencies.)
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