AfD on digital affairs

The AfD wants to strengthen Hesse's data protection commissioner and secure the office's independence. The commissioner should oversee business and public administration alike without instructions and get enough staff and funding to do so. The party also wants to support IT security research.

Everyone should decide about their own data. So the AfD wants to strengthen the data protection commissioner in Hesse. The commissioner should check companies and agencies independently. The office should get enough staff and money. The AfD also wants to fund research on computer security.

The platform calls the right to informational self-determination, meaning the right to decide about one's own data, non-negotiable. The commissioner should work without instructions within the office's remit and be properly resourced with staff, money and equipment. Given advancing digitalization, the AfD supports lasting funding for IT security research at universities and private institutions in Hesse.

The AfD wants to focus mobile network subsidies on rural areas and quickly provide broadband for everyone, over copper lines if necessary. State-funded vouchers are meant to lower connection costs and boost private demand.

Internet in the countryside is often poor. The AfD wants to spend the subsidy money there. Everyone should get good internet quickly. Vouchers from the state should make a connection cheaper.

The platform criticizes that much mobile funding goes to cities even though investments pay for themselves there. The digital ministry should hold private network operators more to account. Fiber remains the long-term goal, but in the short term as many connections as possible should reach at least 50 Mbit/s. The rollout should be pragmatic and adapted to local conditions.

The AfD wants to allow interference with online content only in cases of serious crimes. Users whose posts are removed by large platforms should be able to turn to independent ombudspersons acting as arbitration bodies. It rejects anonymous state reporting portals.

The AfD wants little to be deleted on the internet. Deleting should only be allowed for serious crimes. Large platforms should pay for arbitration offices. Users can complain there when their posts are deleted.

The platform also describes deletion by platform operators as private censorship. The ombudspersons would be accredited by the states' data protection authorities and paid for by the operators; small and private platforms are exempt. Crimes on the internet should be reported to police or authorities and prosecuted. Sites that call for serious crimes should lose all public funding.

The AfD wants to standardize administrative procedures and forms on the basis of the Onlinezugangsgesetz (Online Access Act) and handle them fully digitally. This is meant to ease the burden on citizens and municipalities.

The AfD wants government offices to work digitally. Citizens should be able to handle requests fully online. The forms should be the same everywhere. This should save work for citizens and towns.

The Online Access Act requires authorities to offer their services digitally as well. The AfD demands that the processes themselves become digital, not just the front end. In addition, a statewide digital administration would use uniform municipal data that is not tied to individuals. This data is meant to better prepare decisions on investments and staffing.

The AfD wants esports recognized as an official sport. Streamers who live and broadcast in Hesse should no longer need a broadcasting license, so that young creators are not held back.

Esports means competing in computer games. The AfD wants esports to count as a sport. Streamers show live videos on the internet. They should no longer need a broadcasting license in Hesse.

The platform calls for dropping the license requirement for streamers whose main residence and streaming base are in Hesse. Young people's creativity and reach with digital content should be supported. The AfD defines esports as athletic competition using computer games.