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Germany doesn't rule out closing Telegram – interior minister

reuters.com

11–20 of 189 posts

Re: Germany doesn't rule out closing Telegram – interior minister

#11

Maybe they could license the Great Firewall from China, they have many years of experience with that kind of thing. While they are at it, they could look into other fancy tech from China, for example video surveillance that checks if people conform to Corona rules. After all, why not - China seems to be so successful, what could go wrong?

They are already working on making EU do that.

Re: Germany doesn't rule out closing Telegram – interior minister

#12
On an unrelated note - Telegram is already heavily censored on iPhones because of app store policies and the team refuses to put out an uncensored IPA file that we can sideload to our phones. If someone from the team reads this (I doubt it, since they are very disconnected from western media) please consider it. You already do it for Android!

Re: Germany doesn't rule out closing Telegram – interior minister

#13

This will be interesting. Some background for the discussion: - Germany has a different take on freedom of speech from the US. There are things that you cannot say (holocaust denial, inciting racial violence). We can argue about this, but it's deeply ingrained in the legal system and unrealistic to change - Germany has a special law regulating responsibilities and content moderation in social media (NetzDG, think sec…

Sadly, cutting out Germany means that you'd eventually have to cut out the entire EU. If you just block Germany they're going to push on the EU to take up this fight for them. It'll all be in the name of "stopping online abuse" or something like that.

Germany, in general, seems to be a very poor country to do digital business compared to most other places. This is the same country that required (requires?) streamers to get a broadcasting license that cost thousands of euros to stream to more than 500 people.

Re: Germany doesn't rule out closing Telegram – interior minister

#14
post #9

The collective panic and Luddism about Telegram in Germany is really scary. I watch Tagesschau (probably most respected news show) every evening. Any time Telegram is mentioned it's always being attacked, as if it's only purpose was to enable crime and terrorism.

At she same time, Telegram gets praised in German media when it comes to allowing supporting pro western activist and opposition in Belarus, Russia, Hong-Kong and other “enemy” states.

It's hilarious to watch both praising and bashing Telegram in the same evening news, and how no journalist seems to care.

Re: Germany doesn't rule out closing Telegram – interior minister

#16

This will be interesting. Some background for the discussion: - Germany has a different take on freedom of speech from the US. There are things that you cannot say (holocaust denial, inciting racial violence). We can argue about this, but it's deeply ingrained in the legal system and unrealistic to change - Germany has a special law regulating responsibilities and content moderation in social media (NetzDG, think sec…

> the German government saying: Look here, you got a bunch of criminals and terrorists (literally, with weapons) on your platform, you need to do something about it.

This sounds like a police matter, and should be a question that is asked to, not by, the government.

Not that any government understands that…

Re: Germany doesn't rule out closing Telegram – interior minister

#17
post #9

The collective panic and Luddism about Telegram in Germany is really scary. I watch Tagesschau (probably most respected news show) every evening. Any time Telegram is mentioned it's always being attacked, as if it's only purpose was to enable crime and terrorism.

> Tagesschau

Can you give me a date to look for an example in? I haven't see that yet.

Re: Germany doesn't rule out closing Telegram – interior minister

#18
post #12

On an unrelated note - Telegram is already heavily censored on iPhones because of app store policies and the team refuses to put out an uncensored IPA file that we can sideload to our phones. If someone from the team reads this (I doubt it, since they are very disconnected from western media) please consider it. You already do it for Android!

Out of curiosity what do you mean by censored? Are there groups that cannot be listed on the iphone app?

Re: Germany doesn't rule out closing Telegram – interior minister

#19
post #9

The collective panic and Luddism about Telegram in Germany is really scary. I watch Tagesschau (probably most respected news show) every evening. Any time Telegram is mentioned it's always being attacked, as if it's only purpose was to enable crime and terrorism.

Hilarious, everyone I know in Germany uses Telegram, it seems quite popular over there.

Re: Germany doesn't rule out closing Telegram – interior minister

#20
post #12

On an unrelated note - Telegram is already heavily censored on iPhones because of app store policies and the team refuses to put out an uncensored IPA file that we can sideload to our phones. If someone from the team reads this (I doubt it, since they are very disconnected from western media) please consider it. You already do it for Android!

Out of curiosity what do you mean by censored? Are there groups that cannot be listed on the iphone app?

Exactly, channels, groups, and bots.
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