DÜSSELDORF, Germany — Germany’s most vocal proponent of state censorship of adult content, an obscure local bureaucrat named Tobias Schmid who serves as the head of the State Media Authority (LMA) of North Rhine-Westphalia, announced this week he has identified the hosting provider of xHamster in order to continue actions towards blocking the site.
According to a report by leading German news magazine Spiegel, Schmid — who is at the center of almost every instance of state activism against adult sites — reiterated that, “In the end it is very simple: Anyone who wants to earn money with pornography in the German market has to adhere to German laws.”
Schmid’s office refused to share any other information or any possible steps to be taken against the tube site, which is a prominent brand in Germany alongside Pornhub and XVideos.
"For procedural reasons, we are currently unable to provide any further information on the identity of the host provider," LMA told Spiegel.
The Spiegel report originated from information provided by German tech news site Golem.de.
As XBIZ reported, Schmid had targeted OnlyFans in March, telling a mainstream newspaper that “we are registering that OnlyFans, for example, [is] increasingly attracting erotic providers and influencers, and we will take care of it.”
A local bureaucrat aligned with the establishment’s center-right Christian Democrat party, Schmid has gained national and international stature since 2019 by appointing himself the Central European nation’s chief proponent of state censorship on sexual content.
Schmid’s rhetoric, like that of fellow War on Porn crusaders worldwide, claims his campaign is driven by a desire to “protect the children."
The German newspaper Taz observed a profile of Schmid in the 2016 article “Ordnungspolitik ist sein Fetisch" ("Order Policy [or Regulation Policy] is his fetish").
Main Image: Tobias Schmid (Source: LMA)