Status: 01/17/2022 06:54 a.m
Politicians and authorities accuse the messenger service Telegram of doing almost nothing against criminal content. According to “Welt”, the Federal Criminal Police Office wants to increase the pressure and flood Telegram with inquiries and requests for deletion.
In the fight against criminal and right-wing extremist content, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) wants to increase the pressure on the messenger service Telegram. According to information from “Welt”, officials in the Interior Committee of the Bundestag have announced that the service will be flooded with deletion requests or data requests in the future.
Although Telegram has so far hardly cooperated in this area, corresponding requests should be transmitted without exception. This would make the extent clear – and the pressure for cooperation would possibly increase.
Is cooperation with Telegram possible?
At the request of “Welt”, the BKA declared the goal of wanting to achieve cooperation with Telegram in cooperation with the police authorities of the federal and state governments. The authority did not want to comment on specific statements in Parliament because the meeting was not open to the public, a spokeswoman said.
Politicians and authorities are increasingly taking a confrontational course with Telegram because they believe the service is used particularly often by right-wing extremists and supporters of conspiracy theories.
According to the BKA, Telegram is not interested in “collaborating with the security authorities” according to “local experience”. Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser recently threatened Telegram with being switched off in Germany because of its refusal.
Minister of Justice: Tougher measures
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann also announced tougher measures via Telegram after calls to kill politicians, doctors and scientists. “Our laws also apply to Telegram,” he told the “Bild am Sonntag”. “Telegram must then name a contact person in Germany and set up an easily recognizable reporting channel for criminal content. Since these obligations are violated, we have initiated several fine proceedings.”
To this end, the Ministry of Justice is in constant contact with the United Arab Emirates, where Telegram is based. Buschmann gave Telegram an ultimatum: “If the next delivery attempt fails, the next step is public delivery. After that, we can impose a fine. Our laws provide for fines in the millions.”
MEPs welcome announcement
Members of the government welcomed the BKA’s announcement. The deputy chairman of the Greens parliamentary group, Konstantin von Notz, told the newspaper: “Security authorities and politicians must finally present a more robust approach when it comes to dealing with companies that earn their money with personality violations, hatred and agitation and the destruction of democracy.” The ability of the rule of law to defend itself is “also measured by whether it is possible to stop the obvious violations of the law,” said von Notz.
The domestic policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Manuel Höferlin, pointed out that many of the messages at issue with the messenger service were not in shielded areas, but were freely available: “We see with Telegram that criminal content is published primarily in openly accessible groups – here the service has the character of a website,” said Höferlin of the “world”. “Law enforcement agencies need to keep an eye on this area and pursue them consistently.”