"The criticism showed that this was clearly a raw and ill-considered plan. It was my mistake to go public with it prematurely," Interior Minister Igor Taro (Eesti 200) said on Monday in a social media post.

He explained that producing and distributing terrorist propaganda poses a security threat to people in Estonia as well, but that any measures to limit it must be legally clear and proportionate to freedoms of thought and expression.

"There can be no place for thought police, ideological surveillance or unjustified monitoring in a democratic society and steering in that direction was certainly never my intention," he said.

Just a few days earlier, Taro had passionately defended the draft proposal on social media.

On September 11, he had criticized the very same experts who later voiced concern and wrote that "we should expect constructive proposals and a deeper focus on how to solve the problem from experts — rather than needless media-driven panic." He also linked to an ERR article in which legal scholar Paloma Krõõt Tupay and attorney and law professor Carri Ginter voiced strong criticism of the ministry's proposal.

He also called it "incredible ignorance" toward a growing problem, where authorities cannot intervene until a serious crime has already been committed.

"The intention to draft the bill outlines the problem and one possible solution. It's made public so that we can get early-stage feedback before the draft law is finalized. Instead, I'm seeing rhetoric from interest groups who would be exempt from the regulation anyway," he said at the time.

As recently as Sunday, Taro wrote on social media that the public was being left with the impression that law enforcement agencies need to introduce ideological controls in order to prevent crime.

"Which is completely absurd and underestimates the capabilities of our police and security agencies to handle these issues within the framework of the current legal system."

Taro's proposal also came under criticism from members of his own party, including Minister of Justice and Digital Affairs Liisa-Ly Pakosta and Reform Party MP Madis Timpson, who chairs the Riigikogu Legal Affairs Committee.

"If we start policing thoughts, where does it end? A lot of crime happens when people drink too much alcohol. This feels like a Big Brother bill to me," Timpson said.

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