Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: Data protection banned from AfD

The state data protection officer of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Heinz Müller, has banned the Internet portal "Neutral School" operated by the AfD.

Requests for students to report to teachers who allegedly breached the political neutrality law must be removed from the page within one week by the AfD national association concerned. Otherwise, the AfD threatens a penalty of 25,000 euros, said Müller on Friday.

"It must not be that teachers are intimidated by such a portal in their teaching," said Müller. It was the task of the teachers "to advocate for democracy, the Basic Law and the human dignity guaranteed therein, and they should not be afraid of being bothered by self-proclaimed AfD supporters".

Other than stated by the AfD, the party collects not only the personal data of students who write a message, said Müller. It would be "very deliberately collected the political opinions of registered teachers". However, political opinion is under special legal protection. According to the Data Protection Regulation, the processing of data stating this is "in principle prohibited" and permitted only in exceptional cases. However, according to Müller, these are not the case in this case.

Everyone can ask for information

Although authors of a report would have to agree that the AfD Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania may use their data. However, this consent is far too vague and therefore ineffective. According to Müller, there is also a ban on the number of registered teachers: "We can hardly assume that the teachers concerned have approved the processing of their data."

The data protection officer also pointed out that anyone from the AfD national association could request information "on the processing of data concerning him / her". An informal letter is enough.

The AfD had unlocked the Internet portal in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern at the end of August. The party operates similar portals in some other states too. Critics see it as an attempt to intimidate teachers "by spying", lawyers warned: Who reports, can make a criminal offense.