Federal Criminal Police Office: More removal requests for criminal content

Last year, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) issued 245 so-called removal orders under the EU's Terrorist Content Online Regulation (TCO Regulation), about half the value for 2024. Only 0.8 percent of the orders were not implemented by the providers. 203 of the 245 removal orders were issued to non-German hosting service providers. This is according to the transparency report for the year 2025 on the enforcement of the TCO Regulation, published today. The TCO Regulation is considered one of the sharpest tools; even Telegram follows removal requests according to the BKA.

Objection not futile

Objections were filed with the BKA against six orders – and were successful in all six cases. The Law on Combating Terrorist Online Content (TOIBG) assigns responsibility for action against terrorist content to the BKA. Upon receipt of a formal removal order, hosting providers must make the reported content inaccessible around the clock within one hour.

From other European countries, 28 removal orders were forwarded to German hosting service providers via the BKA – 24 of them were directed against a single provider. According to its own statement, the Federal Network Agency, responsible for ensuring providers comply with the general TCO rules, had already initiated a fine procedure against this provider because it allegedly took insufficient measures against terrorist content within its area of responsibility.

Providers have no examination authority

Unlike under the better-known Digital Services Act (DSA), the TCO Regulation directly regulates the removal of content, not the examination of potential illegality by providers. However, they can have foreign orders subsequently examined by the BKA and, if necessary, go to court. Conversely, hosting services such as social media platforms must inform the competent authorities in their member state if they become aware of content that falls under the TCO Regulation, for example, through user reports. Thus, a DSA report can become a TCO process.

Another BKA procedure is not laid down in the TCO Regulation and is not further specified in the TOIBG: The Federal Network Agency indicates that the BKA sent approximately 29,792 non-binding so-called deletion requests to hosting services in 2025. These can also refer to terrorist content, but in any case, content that is criminally relevant from the BKA's perspective. The number of these requests has been rising steeply for years: the so-called "Referrals" from the BKA were still 7240 in 2023, and already 17,045 in 2024. In more than nine out of ten cases in 2025, providers complied with the firm requests from Wiesbaden.

(wpl)