The messenger service reaches over half a billion people worldwide.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin In the fight against radicalization and hate speech on the online platform Telegram, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) has achieved a partial success. Her ministry managed to establish direct contact with Telegram.
“We have made contact with the top management of Telegram,” Faeser said on Twitter on Friday. “In an initial constructive discussion on further cooperation, we agreed to continue and intensify the exchange.” This step is a good success on which we will build.
Interior Secretary Markus Richter had previously confirmed a corresponding report by the German editorial network (RND) to the Handelsblatt. Accordingly, the conversation took place on Wednesday. This was agreed and coordinated via the contact email address provided by Google.
According to the judge, he himself conducted the conversation with other representatives of the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Ministry of Justice. The top management of Telegram declared their “greatest possible willingness to cooperate” with the German authorities and named a “high-ranking” contact person for future direct exchange.
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In Germany, Telegram is the focus of criticism because radical opponents of the Corona policy organize themselves via the communication service. The platform, founded by the Russian Pawel Durov, is said to be based in Dubai. It’s difficult to get hold of those responsible.
EU justice ministers discuss online radicalization
Investigators reported last year to the “Spiegel” that it was not even worth sending an inquiry there. Whenever they wanted to know who was behind an account on which crimes were being committed, Telegram simply didn’t answer. Telegram did not respond to two fine warnings sent in April 2021.
In the meantime, Faeser has threatened to shut down the chat service provider. However, your ministry was unable to provide any technical or legal details. Another proposal by the minister therefore seemed more practical: Apple and Google could ban the Telegram app from their range.
>>Read here: The fire accelerator: Why Telegram attracts corona extremists
Last Friday, Faeser finally reported on progress in the matter at a meeting of federal and state interior ministers in Stuttgart. At Google and Apple, she sees a willingness to take action against calls for violence in Telegram groups. Her ministry found that Google in particular was “very cooperative”.
The increasing aggressiveness on the Internet is also the subject of a meeting of the justice ministers of the EU states this Friday. Representatives from Facebook and Google are also expected to attend the informal consultations in Lille, northern France. Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) is to take part on behalf of the federal government.
BKA is targeting Telegram more
The minister had recently spoken out in favor of European action against Telegram. With the EU law on digital services (Digital Services Act), common European guidelines for social networks would be created for the first time in order to consistently suppress hate and hate speech with united forces, Buschmann told the Handelsblatt, “Telegram will also be covered by these rules.”
In Germany, Telegram is the preferred medium for opponents of state corona measures. Many of these activists were blocked on platforms such as YouTube, Facebook or Twitter because they had spread calls for violence, false health information or insults. On Telegram, such users can distribute their content free from any moderation or censorship by the operator or the state.
This is one of the reasons why the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) recently announced that it would target Telegram more closely. “The corona pandemic in particular has contributed to people radicalizing themselves on Telegram, threatening others or even publishing calls for murder,” said BKA boss Holger Münch. The BKA has now set up a so-called task force to investigate such crimes.
In December, the EU Commission proposed adding hate speech and hate crimes to the common list of so-called EU crimes. However, this would require the approval of all EU countries, among other things.
More: Growing threat of terrorism in 2022: How dangerous are corona deniers and opponents of vaccination?