Telegram may soon face a hefty fine

Since the rise of the lateral thinking scene, the messenger service Telegram has been a thorn in the side of politicians. After all, it is primarily opponents of the Corona measures who network here and arrange to commit acts, some of which are relevant under criminal law. Crude conspiracy theories are also shared on the service. But how does one proceed against such a service? In particular, imposing a so-called “NetzDG fine” seems to be one of the most effective methods for taking action against the chat service. However, this has not been possible so far. Now, however, politicians seem to want to make use of a trick.

Federal Minister of Justice has an idea

Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP) has apparently found a solution how to impose penalties on the Dubai-based messenger service after all. Until now, this was simply not possible due to the physical distance. The basis for all this is the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG). Buschmann now wants to apply this in a different way, so that messengers like Telegram cannot simply pull out of responsibility. The background to the whole thing is Telegram’s questionable behavior throughout the Corona pandemic. For example, the messenger, which used to be popular primarily for its data security, opened the door for sharing conspiracy-theory content. Recently, opponents of the Corona measures have been organizing themselves on the Messenger service for Monday demonstrations (“walks”). There are probably monetary interests behind this, especially on the part of the messenger. After all, the number of Telegram users increased massively during the “Corona years”.

This is also likely to have increased Telegram’s profits. The German judiciary has been trying to take action against the company for quite some time. Thus, the responsible parties have already been invited to a hearing twice. The reason for this were violations of the NetzDG. However, the messenger service did not cooperate. After all, Telegram did not even provide the judicial authority with a contact person. In addition, Telegram did not comply with the request to combat criminally relevant content. In view of the high threat of punishment resulting from the NetzDG, this is quite surprising. After all, Telegram would have had to face fines of a maximum of 55 million euros. Because Telegram itself is not willing to talk, the German judiciary has already turned to the political leadership of the United Arab Emirates. The latter is now to serve as a mediator. However, it is likely to be a long time before any initial results emerge from this.

Justice relies on “Federal Gazette”

But what happens if once again there is no response from Telegram? This could even be justified in the case of delayed receipt of the legally relevant letters to the Messenger service. Marco Bushman now seems to have an idea how to reach Telegram in time despite geographical distance. The Federal Minister of Justice wants to take action in the context of a “public service by publication in the “Bundesanzeiger”. The great advantage of this approach would be that one would not have to worry about an effective and timely public service. Thanks to effective access, a fine would then also be possible under the NetzDG. This idea has now been expressed by the Federal Minister of Justice to the “Passauer neue Presse”.

Even if this should make prosecution easier, the question still arises as to how enforcement should proceed. After all, Telegram would have to be cooperative in the sense that it would also hand over imposed fines to the authorities. If the company remains true to its previous behavior, this will unfortunately have to be questioned. But even in this case, Buschmann is already talking about an obvious means of exerting pressure. For example, one could stop funds flowing to Telegram. This would probably hurt Telegram a lot. After all, according to its own statements, the company no longer wants to rely on advertising as its main source of income in the future. Instead, a membership is to be linked to subscription costs.

Telegram’s ups and downs

If you take a look at the history of the messenger, this is quite frightening. After all, Telegram was still acting as a savior in partially authoritarian state structures a few years ago. Well-known examples are Belarus, but also Hong Kong. Here, the opposition used the platform to structure itself and organize demonstrations. However, the messenger service is currently coming under increasing criticism, and rightly so. After all, lateral thinkers, right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists use the platform. While they initially only expressed their anger at the Corona measures there, arrangements for banned demos and even calls for murder are currently taking place there.

The focus is not only on politicians, but also on scientists and media representatives. Meanwhile, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) no longer wants to accept this. Accordingly, she has already asked Apple and Google to remove the Telegram app from their respective stores. Since Telegram has meanwhile turned into a platform for hate and conspiracy to commit crimes, this also violates Apple’s and Google’s regulations. The push could therefore have a chance of success.

Alternatives already in the starting blocks

The end of Telegram seems to be as good as sealed due to the increasing political pressure. So it is hardly surprising that alternatives are already in the starting blocks. One example of this is “Gettr”. Similar groups of people who are also active on Telegram meet here. This does not only apply to the USA, where “Gettr” also has its headquarters. The security authorities have also seen a strong increase in user numbers from Germany, as reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. How to assess “Gettr” already becomes clear when one takes a closer look at the founder of the platform. Jason Miller was a close advisor to former U.S. President Donald Trump. According to his own statements, he wants to fight the globally growing “Cancel Culture” with his newly founded social network. In reality, Miller, who has a far-right political affiliation, probably wants to act more as an extension of the former US president.