In Germany, the pressure on the controversial messenger service Telegram is growing. “Telegram is the fire accelerator for conspiracy smugglers, corona deniers and those who have been abandoned by the state,” said Lower Saxony’s Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD). Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Here, murder plans are articulated bluntly in openly visible groups and supposed walks are planned in order to present the state in an attempt to circumvent the right of assembly,” Pistorius warned and announced: “It can’t go on like this. We have to put maximum pressure on the company.”
The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) is also getting political support for its planned tougher action against Telegram. In a confidential meeting in the Bundestag’s Interior Committee last week, the BKA announced that it would literally flood the operators of Telegram with deletion requests and data requests in order to persuade them to give in and take action against criminal content. According to the authorities, the messenger service is often used by far-right and extreme-right groups and parties.
The BKA also publicly criticized the company for the first time on Monday. The service, which is also increasingly being used as a social network, “according to experience, for the most part does not respond to suggestions for the deletion of right-wing extremist content,” said the Federal Criminal Police Office. “There is no evidence that Telegram intervenes to regulate and independently block such groups or channels.”
According to the Federal Government, the service would already be obliged to do so. Due to a tightening of the Network Enforcement Act, he even has to report such violations to the authorities himself from February onwards. However, they still have trouble reaching the management of the Dubai-based company at all and delivering their own demands.
The prosecution of criminal offenses on Telegram is fundamentally difficult because Telegram is “not interested in cooperation with security authorities”, the BKA further explained. Without the release of the user data to identify suspects, however, criminal prosecution is fundamentally difficult. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) had spoken out in favor of shutting down the service as a last resort if necessary. However, that would take a long time. Union interior ministers such as Thomas Strobl (CDU) from Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria’s interior minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) are also in favor of taking a tougher stance against Telegram.
“Parts of the AfD radicalize themselves dramatically.”
In view of the current radicalization of the Corona protests, domestic politicians also advocate tougher action against the AfD, for example by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. “Observing the AfD is essential. The party has been crossing borders for years,” said Pistorius. “The point is gradually approaching where the AfD’s anti-constitutionalism could and should be reviewed by the constitutional court. That’s a long way to go, but parts of the AfD are radicalizing dramatically.” In East Germany in particular, the AfD “has a massive influence on the protests, in some cases. There is also at least tacit tolerance of cooperation with right-wing extremists, but this is more and more often wanted.”
Nationwide, thousands of citizens again protested against the measures to combat the corona pandemic and against a possible vaccination requirement at the weekend and on Monday. Most of the demonstrations were peaceful, but there were also some violent attacks. Police officials complain that the potential for aggression is increasing. However, the counter-demonstrations are also becoming more numerous.