News · Germany · 11 November 2026
Three German states order all providers based there to block two sites by 16 November
On 16 October 2026 the media authorities of North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg each published two general orders. They oblige every internet access provider based in their state to block two websites for users in Germany: der-stuermer.org, which spreads Nazi propaganda, and watchpeopledie.tv, which shows graphic violence and death. Providers have until 16 November 2026. The orders stay in force until 17 October 2028. According to epd medien, other state media authorities have joined, without saying which.
Sources: NRW: der-stuermer.org, watchpeopledie.tv · BLM, Bavaria: der-stuermer.org, watchpeopledie.tv · LFK, Baden-Württemberg: der-stuermer.org, watchpeopledie.tv · epd medien, 22 October 2026
What the orders say
- Every provider based in the state. The orders are addressed to all internet access providers based in each of the three states, not to named companies. Telekom and Vodafone have their headquarters in North Rhine-Westphalia, O2 (Telefónica) in Munich, Bavaria. A provider based elsewhere is not bound unless its own state authority issues a similar order.
- DNS is the expected method. The orders say a provider meets its duty in particular by blocking the domains in its DNS resolvers (the "address book" that turns a domain into a server address) in all its networks. Other methods are not ruled out.
- Mirrors included. Each order also covers copies of the site with the same or nearly the same content. A rule in force since 1 December 2025 allows this, so that a site cannot escape a block just by moving to a new address.
- Earlier blocks often named one company. In 2022 the first xHamster orders went to the five largest providers. In April 2024 North Rhine-Westphalia ordered one large provider to block Pornhub and YouPorn; on 9 October 2026 the state's higher administrative court ruled that this provider does not have to block them for now, because the orders likely conflict with EU law. In January 2026 the media authorities used a general order, like the new ones, against samidoun.net.
Sources: KJM on the 2025 rule change · KJM on xHamster · OVG NRW, 9 October 2026 · mabb on samidoun.net
What a visitor will see
The blocks are due by 16 November, so we cannot yet say what visitors will see. When we checked earlier youth-protection blocks on Telekom on 9 November 2026, there was no notice page: its resolver answered that the domain does not exist. The visitor got an ordinary browser error, as if the site had gone away, with nothing to say it was blocked or by whom.
Why it matters if you run a website
A block of this kind looks like a broken domain, not like a block. Your server sees no errors and an uptime monitor in a data center sees the site working, because the block sits in the provider's resolver. Each state media authority publishes such orders as official notices on its own website. If visitors in one German state report that your site "does not exist", check the notices of that state's authority and test your site through the providers' own connections, not from a data center.
After the deadline we will check both domains on Telekom, Vodafone and O2, at home and on mobile, and add what we find here.
How blocking works in Germany · Why datacenter monitors miss ISP blocks