“The state has to react quickly to Telegram,” said Thuringia’s Interior Minister Georg Maier (SPD) of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Tuesday). The service must take hatred and agitation from the network. “If he doesn’t do that, sanctions such as fines must follow.”
“Geoblocking can also come at the end of the spiral of government action,” explained Maier. Geoblocking could make Telegram inaccessible in certain regions. However, this is a very far-reaching step, said the Thuringian.
Maier’s Saxon counterpart Roland Wöller (CDU) warned in an interview with the station Phoenix about the incredible power of mobilization of the messenger service. In this way, small groups of right-wing extremists succeed in penetrating bourgeois society. Wöller called for the providers to be held liable for the offenses that can be traced back to them, as well as the obligation to disclose the names for criminal investigations by the police.
Politicians from the FDP and the Greens pleaded for a change to the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG). In fact, unlike social networks, messenger services have so far been exempt from the provisions of the NetzDG
This provides for a general obligation for operators to report illegal content from the area of hate crime to the Federal Criminal Police Office from February 1 of next year.
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