Monday, December 13, 2021
“Action must be taken”
Government wants to regulate Telegram
Corona deniers, calls for violence and other criminal content: topics and people relevant to the protection of the constitution can be found on Telegram. Because the company does not intervene, they hardly need to fear the consequences. The Ministry of Justice wants to change that. However, not all parties are in favor.
The Federal Ministry of Justice sees the messenger service Telegram as a social network that should also be regulated as such, as a spokeswoman confirmed. “Telegram is being used more and more in all phenomenon areas observed by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution,” it said. “Supporters of the constitutional protection-relevant corona denier scene in particular use the platform to spread their own agenda and to mobilize for demonstrations and events.” The federal government is therefore examining how it can counter the spread of hatred and agitation via Telegram. “A Europe-wide uniform legal framework” will be sought, said the spokeswoman.
In addition to individual communication, Telegram also allows group discussions for several thousand users. Telegram also enables “the uncomplicated sharing of criminally relevant videos, images and audio files, hardly intervenes administratively in content and thus offers the possibility of influencing other people”, says the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Thuringia’s Interior Minister Georg Maier sees an increasing propensity for violence in the protests against the state anti-corona measures. This is one of the reasons why he is in favor of restrictions on Telegram. “Telegram has long ceased to be a pure messenger service, it has become a social platform. There, demonstrations are advertised, violence is also called for there, addresses are published by politicians. So, action must be taken here.”
The last path leads to Apple and Google
As a social network, Telegram, like Twitter and Facebook, is fundamentally obliged by the Network Search Act to delete criminal content within 24 hours. However, the Justice Department indicated that sanctioning a company that is based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) is difficult.
The Federal Office of Justice has already opened two fine proceedings against Telegram because it does not name a clear reporting path and no person responsible in Germany. However, the company has not reacted so far and is therefore staying true to the line that its founder and managing director Pavel Durov has been following for years. In the end, there would theoretically only be one drastic means left: to convince Apple and Google not to offer the Telegram app for download anymore. Those who have already installed it could, however, continue to communicate about it.
Martina Renner from the Left Party, with whom Maier governs in Thuringia, is fundamentally against the state intervening in the citizens’ means of communication. “Bans and regulation cannot replace the necessary political debate,” she said.
The AfD, whose members and supporters diligently use Telegram, is strictly against any regulation. “The network enforcement law should be abolished,” says Joana Cotar, digitization expert in the AfD parliamentary group. It is correct that Telegram withdraws from this.