The controversial pop singer Michael Wendler (48, “No matter”) can no longer spread conspiracy stories on Instagram in the future. The 48-year-old’s channel was no longer available on Thursday – the social network had blocked him. “We have removed the Instagram account because it has repeatedly violated our guidelines,” said a spokesman for the parent company Facebook of the German press agency.

Instagram’s guidelines state that violating the rules could result in content being deleted, accounts suspended, or other restrictions imposed. “We’re removing all content that contains believable threats or hate speech.” Serious threats to public or personal security are also not permitted.

After the outbreak of the Corona crisis, Wendler’s Instagram channel included terms such as “fake pandemic” and “media censorship”. He had also used the network to quit his job on the RTL casting show “Deutschland sucht den Superstar” via video. The statements had triggered a scandal in October 2020 because the Florida hit man before the federal government “gross and serious violations of the constitution” in the Corona crisis. He also accused television stations – including his local channel RTL at the time – of being “synchronized”. RTL immediately distanced itself and called Wendler a conspiracy theorist. It broke.

In addition, Wendler had chosen Instagram as a forum to defend further scandalous statements that he had posted on Telegram – another network. There, Wendler had referred to Germany as a “concentration camp” because of the anti-corona measures. Allegedly “KZ” was an abbreviation for “Crisis Center”, he later claimed on Instagram. In the general public, however, the letters had been perceived as a synonym for “concentration camp”.

After the incident, RTL finally banned the pop singer from the screen and cut him from “Deutschland sucht den Superstar” material that had already been recorded. Wendler’s few remaining scenes were now only pixelated and seen without sound.(apa / dpa)