Faeser’s ministry wanted to ban the Islamic centre’s social media presence – but mistyped the ban. Instead, the Chanel fashion brand’s YouTube channel is now banned.
Nancy Faeser actually wanted to send a signal against Islamism with her ban on the Islamic Centre Hamburg (IZH), a proxy of the Iranian regime with close ties to terrorism – especially after the controversial Compact raid. However, the ministry has apparently made an embarrassing mistake.
The ban order lists various social media channels that must also be shut down as part of the ban on the IZH. These include the channel of the Islamic Centre Berlin, a sister association of the IZH in Hamburg. The officials and lawyers at the Federal Ministry of the Interior, who had prepared the order, made a small but crucial mistake. Apparently they typed in the URL of the Islamic Centre Berlin’s YouTube channel by hand – and mistyped it. They forgot an ‘N’.
However, this has far-reaching legal consequences: Due to this one typo, the link that is supposed to define the YouTube channel to be banned no longer leads to the IZ Berlin – but to the channel of the famous fashion brand Chanel. The prohibition order now officially concerns the French fashion company.
This is certainly a typo – but one that is now actually legally valid. The Federal Ministry of the Interior has not yet commented on this faux pas.