Telegram provides a platform for many radical and extremist movements. The messenger is criticized for this. What can the government do about it?
Berlin – The messenger service Telegram has become increasingly important in recent years. While the platform was initially praised as a better WhatsApp alternative with improved data protection, it has been transformed into a reservoir for lateral thinkers, opponents of vaccinations and conspiracy theorists at the latest during the corona pandemic.
Hate messages are exchanged and propaganda is carried out in group chats. A network in Dresden planned the assassination of the Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) via Telegram. The messenger service has now come under massive criticism.
Telegram Messenger: More than 500 million users worldwide
Telegram was founded in 2013 by Russian young entrepreneur Pawel Durow. Together with his brother, he had already established Russia’s most popular online network: VK. After Durov was put under pressure by the Russian authorities, he left VK to a Putin confidante and left his homeland. Telegram’s headquarters are now in Dubai. According to the Russian founder, donors include investment firms from the Emirates. However, the exact financial structure of the company is unclear.
According to the company’s own information, around 500 million people were using the Telegram app at the beginning of 2021. This makes the messenger one of the most popular services worldwide. In a survey, around 22 percent of the Germans surveyed said they had Telegram installed on their smartphones.
Telegram Dilemma A hate and pop-agand platform
The big trademark of Telegram is the secure end-to-end encryption. This makes it much more difficult to monitor private messages. Durow refuses to work with governments to make monitoring the app as difficult as possible. This makes Telegram attractive not only for private users, but also for extremist movements. They use the platform to spread radical ideas. A prominent example from Germany is Attila Hildmann, who fed his followers with false information and conspiracy theories via Telegram during the corona pandemic. Opposition movements such as in Iran or Belarus also use the encrypted messenger to plan prostests and demonstrations.
But the messenger is also used for other illegal activities. The Federal Criminal Police Office reported nine illegal marketplaces with a total of 8,000 members on Telegram in November 2020.
Control hate speech on the Internet: Germany introduces network enforcement law
On the one hand, there is a plea for more data protection on the Internet. On the other hand, the communication of extremist groups should be controlled. A balancing act that the federal government would like to achieve with the so-called Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG). Since 2017, online networks like Facebook have had to take active action against criminal content on their platforms. Services for individual communication – including WhatsApp, for example – do not fall under this rule.
Until the beginning of 2021, Telegram was also counted among the individual messengers, even if chat groups can contain up to 200,000 members. In April of this year, the Federal Ministry of Justice changed this assessment and for the first time sent two fine warnings within the meaning of the NetzDG to Durow. There is no information as to whether Telegram ever responded to these decisions.
Telegram: a lawless area? The government can do that
“Domestic politicians in Germany are facing a telegram dilemma that they cannot simply solve,” says the head of the digital department of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation, Simone Rafael. The only way to get Telegram under control would be to shut down the service completely. “But understandably nobody wants that in democratic Germany,” Rafael said in an interview with the AFP news agency.
The control could, however, take place via the app store. If the app is no longer available for download, its spread would also be curbed. “These gatekeepers could throw Telegram out of the app stores because the Hatespeech service offers a platform without using reasonable security mechanisms,” says Tobias Keber, professor of media law.
The new interior minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) announced that in the future she would crack down on hate on the internet. She does not want to accept Telegram’s behavior. (aa / afp)
