Berlin Insults, threats, calls for murder: politically motivated crime against politicians has increased drastically. This is shown by figures from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), which are available to the Handelsblatt. Criminal offenses against officials and elected officials have almost tripled in the past four years.
According to the BKA, the authorities counted 4,458 criminal offenses in 2021. For comparison: in 2017 there were 1527 cases. The figures for the past year are only provisional.
The activities on the platform are viewed with concern, the BKA said at the request of the Handelsblatt. “This overall development, including the criminal offenses on the Telegram platform, can certainly be a threat to democracy if people no longer dare to express their opinions or take up an office.” The tendency must be stopped and combated by “consistent enforcement of the rule of law”.
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Domestic politicians in the traffic light coalition, such as the SPD member of the Bundestag, Sebastian Fiedler, were alarmed and are demanding consequences. “The numbers show in a frightening way how big our problem is,” Fiedler told the Handelsblatt. “Of course, the investigative authorities must be put in a position to consistently pursue each of these crimes and bring the perpetrators to justice.”
It is all the more important that the new pact for the rule of law increases the number of police officers, said Fiedler. With the pact, the federal and state governments committed themselves in 2019 to better equipping the judiciary, law enforcement and the police.
Resolutely punish death threats
The Greens parliamentary group leader Konstantin von Notz spoke of an alarming level of hatred and hate speech against representatives of democratic institutions, which demanded “clear answers from the rule of law”. “This is the only way to ensure that people will still be committed to the common good in the future,” he told the Handelsblatt.
From the point of view of the Green politician, it must be made easier for threatened people to block information about their addresses in the population register. Von Notz also believes it is imperative to strengthen law enforcement on platforms such as Telegram. It must be ensured that insults, incitement to hatred and death threats are resolutely punished.
The FDP parliamentary group leader Konstantin Kuhle also called on the judiciary and security authorities to better prevent and prosecute crimes inside and outside the digital world. The digital pact for the judiciary in the coalition agreement is an important contribution.
“When perpetrators meet via platforms like Telegram, this often happens under real names,” Kuhle told Handelsblatt. In these cases, the security authorities would have to intervene quickly.
>>Read here: The fire accelerator: Why Telegram attracts corona extremists
According to the BKA, German security authorities have identified insults, threats and calls for homicides and other serious crimes on Telegram, especially in the context of the corona pandemic. Political officials and elected officials as well as people from science and medicine are particularly affected.
“The possibilities of digital communication in interaction with the trend towards the brutalization of language seem to be pushing the limits of what is imaginable and, above all, what can be communicated,” states the authority.
The BKA warns that this development could provide impetus for radicalization processes, encourage violent people to unite and result in “digital and real-world concrete dangers”. Telegram offers its users the opportunity to communicate unfiltered and, as an internet-based communication application, is part of this development.
The BKA has therefore set up a task force to identify and prosecute suspects on Telegram in close cooperation with the police forces in the federal states and the Central Office for Combating Internet Crime (Zit).
Deletion requests remain unanswered
Telegram has long been the focus of security authorities. The communication app was founded by brothers Nikolai and Pavel Durov. The two promise to protect the data of Telegram users and largely refuse to cooperate with government agencies. In addition, they do not take care of deletion requests, even if they involve hate speech and calls for violence.
The messenger service is considered difficult to reach. The core team around Pawel Durow is currently based in Dubai. The German authorities have so far not been able to deliver deletion requests in accordance with the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) with legal certainty. The law obliges Internet platforms to take tougher action against hatred, hate speech and propaganda.
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) threatened Telegram on Friday with legal action if hate speech was spread. However, the service has not yet responded to two fine warnings sent out in April 2021.
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) tweeted that contact had been made with the top management. “In an initial constructive discussion on further cooperation, we agreed to continue and intensify the exchange.”
The SPD politician Fiedler sees an urgent need for action. He pointed out that the supporters of a “quite new conspiracy extremism” used Telegram for targeted misinformation in order to delegitimize the foundations of the democratic constitutional state.
“Right-wing extremist groups, above all the AfD, are also stirring this poisonous soup vigorously,” said Fiedler. After the euro and refugee crises, the AfD is now finding “fuel for its destructive work in German parliaments” here for the third time.
FDP politician Kuhle warned against reducing the problem of growing calls for violence against officials and elected officials entirely to Telegram. “Other platforms as an alternative medium are quickly found,” said the deputy. It is therefore important that a binding legal framework for all platform operators is found at European level with the so-called Digital Services Act.
Kuhle sees reason to hope that the EU law will also require a change in the German NetzDG. “The judiciary must be given a stronger role in combating criminal offenses on the Internet.”
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