Status: 13.12.2021 10:13 a.m.
Interior Minister Faeser wants to take stronger action against the Telegram messenger service. The background is the incitement to be found there and calls for violence as well as the appointment of illegal corona protests.
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,” emphasized Faeser.
“Criminal content must be deleted”
Messenger services are currently not covered by the Network Enforcement Act insofar as they are intended for individual communication. With Telegram, however, you can now write messages in public groups. 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 Faeser. In addition, the obligation to report to the Federal Criminal Police Office applies to public channels.
Concern about the increase in the willingness to use violence during demonstrations against corona measures
Claudia Reiser, MDR, daily topics 10:45 p.m., 12.12.2021
Violence during protests is increasing
Many opponents of the corona measures also use telegram to organize their protests. In addition, the messenger service repeatedly called for violence against politicians and experts.
At the weekend there were riots in numerous cities during protests against the corona measures. The violence was condemned across parties. The North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Minister Herbert Reul warned that the protests would increasingly be exploited by right-wing extremists. The CDU politician said on Bild TV about the extremist part of the protesters: “They are extremely dangerous because they now not only talk, gossip, incite each other, but also take action.” That worries him very much. Therefore, he can only advise all Democrats “that we say together: It’s over, there is a limit here.”
“Perfidious and unbearable”
Thuringia’s Interior Minister Georg Maier also warned: “We as a society have to find a very clear language”. A small minority is becoming “louder and louder, more and more radical,” said the SPD politician. Right-wing extremists took advantage of this. The minister criticized calls to publish the addresses of politicians as “perfidious and unbearable”, “so that they no longer have a good life”. Most recently, a torch lift in front of the home of the Saxon Minister of Health Petra Köpping caused nationwide dismay.
Fears of further radicalization
Terrorism expert Peter Neumann also did not rule out terrorist dangers from these protests. “What we have already seen in isolated cases are more complex attacks on the RKI, for example, or on clinics and vaccination centers.” He could therefore imagine “that in a few months we may actually have to speak of a terrorist campaign,” warned Neumann.