The incident was discovered by chance on a civilian's phone confiscated as part of investigations into Austria's right-wing extremist scene in September, news magazine Profil reported.
Messages with inflammatory, National Socialist and anti-Semitic content were found on the phone and, during the investigation, it was discovered that an officer from the Vienna State Police Directorate (LPD) had also messaged the owner of the phone.
The officer, who Profil reported was assigned to the city police command unit, is said to have received and forwarded messages with Nazi content.
Internal investigations later revealed that another police officer, from a station in Penzing, was also said to have disseminated similar content.
On Thursday, the Vienna State Police Directorate confirmed the provisional suspension of the two officers as of October 20th.
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Austria's Disciplinary Authority now has one month to confirm or lift these suspensions.
According to the Vienna State Police Directorate, a disciplinary report and a report under Section 3g of the Prohibition Act were filed against both officers immediately after the directorate became aware of the situation.
However, the magazine said that the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office was not yet aware of the report as of Thursday afternoon.
This is not the first time that questions have been raised about the right-wing nature of the police in Austria. In January, an office-based police officer was found to have registered a right-wing extremist demonstration.
In neighbouring Germany, meanwhile, as of April 2024, disciplinary or investigative proceedings had been conducted against at least 400 police officers on suspicion of right-wing extremist views or support for a conspiracy ideology, Profil reported.
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