In Germany the political climate is so bad that the domestic intelligence publicly confirms on social media that they have person so and so on their radar. This had no consequences. Let that sink in. In such a climate it's sometimes enough to publicly scold a bank on social media to have blogger XY as their customer to trigger debanking. In one case, some blogger called a politician "fat", which caused the FBI equivalent to request the bank account history from the bloggers bank, which ultimately caused debanking.
So in Germany it's used more Stasi like, meaning protection of the government. They changed the objective so that the scope of the domestic intelligence is no longer groups of people who want to overthrow the system, but also individuals that "deligitimize the government and it's representatives". That is, criticism about the Covid measures can put you on the radar of domestic intelligence. An independent left wing journalist did a FOIA request and found out she's on the radar because of just that.
A perfect climate for debanking measures and some hint on what is going on with Germany in case you wonder...
> which caused the FBI equivalent to request the bank account history from the bloggers bank, which ultimately caused debanking.
I don’t know which person you have in mind but the situation in Europe can’t be directly compared since you have a right to a bank account. You _cannot_ be debanked. You have a right to a “base account” (under some conditions).
Debanking to me doesn't just mean "no bank account". It starts with closing of accounts without being given a reason and the constant fear that any new account will be closed as well. For businesses this has even bigger implications.
You a right: There is base account meant for refugees, homeless people, indebted people... This is nothing more than a safety net for when you are at the bottom of society. You can't do business with it etc... If someone where to be forced to register such an account because all banks closed the normal accounts without giving a reason, I'd still consider it debanked.
In Germany the political climate is so bad that the domestic intelligence publicly confirms on social media that they have person so and so on their radar. This had no consequences. Let that sink in. In such a climate it's sometimes enough to publicly scold a bank on social media to have blogger XY as their customer to trigger debanking. In one case, some blogger called a politician "fat", which caused the FBI equivalent to request the bank account history from the bloggers bank, which ultimately caused debanking.
So in Germany it's used more Stasi like, meaning protection of the government. They changed the objective so that the scope of the domestic intelligence is no longer groups of people who want to overthrow the system, but also individuals that "deligitimize the government and it's representatives". That is, criticism about the Covid measures can put you on the radar of domestic intelligence. An independent left wing journalist did a FOIA request and found out she's on the radar because of just that.
A perfect climate for debanking measures and some hint on what is going on with Germany in case you wonder...