BKA wants to "flood" Telegram - Messenger rarely deletes right-wing extremist content

Created: 01/18/2022, 20:53

Telegram is intended to offer a platform for conspiracy theorists, corona deniers and right-wing extremists - the BKA wants to take action against it.

© Udo Herrmann/ChromOrange/Isabelle Ouvrard/SEPA.Media/APA-PictureDesk

The messenger service Telegram has been targeted by the BKA.

Because right-wing extremist content is rarely deleted, there is even a risk of it being shut down.

Berlin/Munich – Telegram is criticized: the messenger service is said to be blind in the right eye. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) sees considerable deficits in the deletion of right-wing extremist content through Telegram. The messenger service, which is also increasingly being used as a platform, "according to experience, for the most part does not respond to suggestions for the deletion of right-wing extremist content," said the BKA on Monday on request. "There is no evidence that Telegram intervenes to regulate and independently block such groups or channels."

Telegram is quite capable of helping the authorities: the service deals differently with propaganda from Islamist-terrorist groups.

If corresponding content is reported to Telegram via an application provided by Europol, the company regularly complies with the deletion suggestions.

In particular, Telegram also deletes content of the terrorist militia Islamic State (IS) and the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda on its own initiative.

In the fight against criminal and right-wing extremist content, the BKA wants to increase the pressure on Telegram.

According to information from the

(Monday edition), representatives of the authorities in the Bundestag Interior Committee announced that the service should be flooded with deletion requests or data requests in the future.

Prosecution of criminal offenses via Telegram difficult - service does not cooperate

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.

The aim of the BKA, in cooperation with the federal and state police authorities, is to achieve cooperation with Telegram in order to “intensify the existing approaches – for example with regard to deletion requests”, the authority further announced.

The prosecution of criminal offenses on Telegram is fundamentally difficult because the service is “not interested in working with security authorities”, the authority said.

Without the release of user data to identify suspects, criminal prosecution is fundamentally difficult.

Politicians and authorities are increasingly on a confrontational course over Telegram

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.

Politicians* and authorities are increasingly on a confrontational course with Telegram because, in their opinion, 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 (SPD*) recently threatened Telegram with being switched off in Germany because of his refusal.

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