telecommunications
Federal Minister of the Interior wants to take on Telegram
Nancy Faeser (SPD) wants to take on the messenger service Telegram. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Right-wing chats, threats of violence and conspiracy stories have often brought the messenger service Telegram into disrepute. Interior Minister Faeser does not rule out “switching off” herself.
The new Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) wants to take on the messenger service Telegram.
According to the security authorities, the chat service, which also offers the possibility of a social network, is used particularly often by right-wing extremists and conspiracy believers for mobilization purposes.
She told the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”: “We are a constitutional state, but we cannot rule that out per se either. Switching it off would be very serious and clearly the last resort. Before that, all other options must have been unsuccessful».
When asked how such a “switch-off” could be accomplished in practice, a spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior could not provide any technical or legal details in Berlin on Wednesday.
Faeser told Die Zeit that she was striving for a European solution to force Telegram to cooperate. She pointed out: «Today Telegram is in Dubai, tomorrow maybe in the Cayman Islands. We will need a lot of strength in enforcing the law. As a German nation state, we can’t do it alone.”
Many people around the world use Telegram primarily for 1-to-1 communication in a private or professional context, such as Wire, Signal, Whatsapp, Threema or other messenger services. However, Telegram is an alternative platform for some users who have been blocked from YouTube, Twitter, Facebook or other social networks because of extremist content.
Ultimately, the German authorities had only one drastic measure left: to convince Apple and Google to no longer offer the Telegram app for download. Anyone who has already installed it could continue to communicate about it. However, you can also download and install the app for Android devices outside of the Google Play Store, including directly from Telegram itself. Theoretically, it would also be possible to block networks that are more or less effective. In doing so, however, one would follow a path similar to that of authoritarian states.