Today there is a rather unpleasant topic in the otherwise cozy NextPit podcast “Casa Casi”: Fabi and Casi are discussing Telegram. The focus is not on the messenger functions, but on the often justiciable things that happen there unhindered.
Peace, joy and pancakes? Ass! Although we are rushing towards the fourth Advent, the current episode of our dreamy NextPit podcast is not very contemplative today. The subject is too unsavory because we have to talk about Telegram today.
This is not about everything that basically defines the extremely popular messenger. We have described the advantages and functions of the messaging service in many articles and we also use it ourselves. So we don’t want to deny Telegram its versatility and functionality.
Den of Sin Telegram
No, when we talk about Telegram today, it’s not about great features and fancy stickers, but about the people who gather there. And no, it doesn’t mean the rabbit breeder association or your holiday group in which you organize your trip. We want to talk about the kind of content that shouldn’t be allowed on any platform in the world.
Telegram is hated, harassed, discredited, slandered and defamed. “Lateral thinkers” organize themselves there as well as Reich citizens: inside and strict right-wing radicals. The intersection of these groups should not be our topic today. We also don’t want to talk about people who disagree with some of the decisions made by local politicians, or who feel uncomfortable about the vaccinations.
Specifically, it is about that part of the population that is actually saying something unspeakable. In groups of up to 200,000 people, racist rushes are allowed there to the heart’s content. Likewise, rulers, those who think differently and everyone else may be insulted, insulted and threatened. Recently, there have been increasing numbers of reports that specific murder plans are being forged against German politicians.
Most recently, the ZDF magazine Frontal reported on such plans and attracted a lot of attention. In the aftermath there was even a raid in which, among other things, weapons such as crossbows were seized!
What can you do about this development?
Today Fabi and I didn’t just talk about these assholes (Pardon my French) acting like the last people there. But we also asked the question of how we can put a stop to this wild growth on Telegram. Problem: The reasons went from Russia to Dubai, where the platform is now supposed to be based.
Any request to rid your own platform of justiciable content will come to nothing. The German government knocked on Telegram several times, and there was not a single answer. Even the Network Enforcement Act does not help us here, because we would first have to clarify whether Telegram should be understood as a social network or just as a messenger.
It is important that we differentiate between the lion’s share of the more than 500 million users: those who simply handle their private communication there – and those who actually demand and plan violent crimes there, incite peoples and much more. That makes it so difficult to simply demand that the whole bang in Germany simply be blocked. But something definitely has to happen and I’m almost afraid that Fabi and I were just as perplexed today as the German government.
You might have to go elsewhere and knock on Google and Apple, for example, and ask these two companies to ban Telegram from the app stores if necessary. But would they get involved? And would it really help? Here, too, there is again the risk that these people will simply organize themselves elsewhere and possibly in a place that is even more difficult to grasp than Telegram.
Yes, of course there are also harmless groups on Telegram / © BongkarnGraphic / Shutterstock.com
I would also like to appeal to each of you: We can all contribute to changing the tone on social media. We need to stop verbally attacking or trying to ridicule anyone who disagrees. But maybe we should also stop sharing supposedly funny outpourings from such groups.
Sure, we shake our heads when we read the nonsense that Naidoo, Hildmann or Wendler utter. Sometimes we also make sure that we contribute to the fact that over 100,000 people read along in their groups. Michael Wendler can’t get it that 95 percent of his “readers: inside” laugh at what he gets out of there.
You see, it is a difficult subject and one that will probably occupy us for much longer. How do you feel about it? What do you think Germany, or the EU or the nations of this world in general should do? Or do you even think that things should be allowed to go that way? Feel free to write it to me in the comments and I’ll be happy to discuss with you there how to get this problem under control.
We hope, of course, that you still like to listen and remain loyal to us, even if the podcast is less funny – some topics keep us laughing in our throats. So feel free to discuss it with us here under the post or on social media. Spread our podcast, rate it and don’t skimp on criticism and suggestions, if you have any. We look forward to your feedback and promise that next week it will be funnier again.