From the promo video of it running an ancient version of iTunes on Windows Vista and the brochures it seems they inject their malware via software updates in general, not just iTunes.
I wouldn't be surprised if they force the installation of a certificate root they can use to serve malicious updates (for German OS X users, at least). That's a tactic used by agencies in other countries. Apple et al could probably mitigate this with certificate pinning in their updaters but I'm not sure they can get away with that without running into trouble with other countries that expect to be able to MITM updates.
I would be surprised. IIRC those "other countries" are countries like Iran that have also just shut off access to the internet for the country. I still think we have a few more years of internet freedom in Germany before that happens.
uh, if you actually read the links you posted...from the second article one of the people visited by law enforcement said "In my opinion, gasify everyone" [google translate I must admit, but there were plenty of quotes like this that I think its safe to say this is the intended tone]
I don't see how there is any justifiable grounds to talk about killing people with gas in any context, particularly not in this context.
A Youtuber made a video about an incidents between students where one made a racist joke. He [the Youtuber] said about that joke "that wasn't a bad joke" and got convicted for Volksverhetzung - one of the harshest crimes we have. If you get convicted for that as a non-VIP, your life is effectively over in Germany. That's socially worse than a rape conviction.
And back to the point: whether you consider it right to put people in jail for saying mean things or not - it is absolutely not internet freedom. Not by any stretch of the imagination.
This has nothing to do with NetzDG. If he would have spewed something of that caliber openly on the street he would've had to expect the same thing (depending on where in Germany of course).
That there is no "free speech" in Germany in respect to hatespeech has been the case pre-internet too. I'm not a big fan of NetzDG, but I also have to say that I expected much worse censorship-wise when it passed and I haven't heard of gross misapplications of it so far. If anything Facebook and Twitter show that you can still post a lot of hatespeech despite its existence.
What does this have to do with "internet freedom" (whatever that means)? Statements that would get you prosecuted when shouted in the streets have that same effect when posted online. Surprised Pikachu face?
No, that's not "by that logic". The entire point is that internet freedom is about things that are conceptually impossible to do on the streets. Like using a VPN or having net neutrality. It's not about whether you get to do things on the internet that are otherwise forbidden.