Monday, December 13, 2021
Agitation and calls for violence
Faeser wants to crack down on Telegram
The corona protest is networked via the messenger service Telegram. Again and again there is agitation and calls for violence up to the open expression of murder fantasies. Federal Minister of the Interior Faeser no longer wants to stand idly by.
The new Federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, has announced that it will crack down on hate speech and calls for violence on the Telegram messenger service. “We have to act more resolutely against agitation, violence and hatred on the Internet,” said the SPD politician in the newspapers of the Funke media group. The Federal Office of Justice conducted two proceedings against Telegram for violating the Network Enforcement Act, to which Telegram did not respond. “This federal government will not accept that,” said Faeser.
Messenger services are currently not covered by the Network Enforcement Act insofar as they are intended for individual communication. With Telegram you can now write messages in public groups with up to 200,000 members. According to Faeser, an unlimited number of people can subscribe to public channels. These open channels would already be subject to the same rules of the Network Enforcement Act as Facebook or Twitter, for example. “This means that obviously criminal content must be deleted within 24 hours, illegal content within seven days,” said the SPD politician. In addition, the obligation to report to the Federal Criminal Police Office applies to public channels.
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer had previously spoken out in favor of restrictions on Telegram. “It can no longer be accepted that the operators of Telegram from Dubai watch idly as death threats are spread in their network,” said Kretschmer of “Bild am Sonntag”. “If you want to continue to offer your services on the German market, you have to take action against this agitation. Otherwise the EU, the federal government, Apple and Android have to restrict their use.”
The Saxon head of government is himself affected by the hatred of Telegram. According to a report by the ZDF magazine “Frontal”, statements about murder plans against Kretschmer had surfaced in the network. But he doesn’t want to be intimidated by it. According to the State Office of Criminal Investigation in Saxony, the police and the Public Prosecutor General are now examining the factual and legal situation in the case.