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Telegram now censoring channels in Germany for “violating local laws”

netzpolitik.org

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Re: Telegram now censoring channels in Germany for “violating local laws”

#31

Post by Hasnep »

jevoten wrote: post #9

Avoid censorship with this one weird trick: Print the information in a book, and put it in a library, or even on a school curriculum, if you can. If anyone tries to remove the book, then we are back to the dark ages of book banning or even burning. You know who else burned books, right? On the other hand, if the book is prevented from being published or stocked in the first place, if school or public libraries simply…

If you're referring to the recent books like Maus being removed from the school curriculum in America, they were banned for things like containing nudity and rude words. From what I can tell from the auto-translated version of the article, these Telegram posts were removed in Germany for breaking German law. Whether you think the German law is correct is a different issue.

Re: Telegram now censoring channels in Germany for “violating local laws”

#32

Post by dleslie »

jevoten wrote: post #9

Avoid censorship with this one weird trick: Print the information in a book, and put it in a library, or even on a school curriculum, if you can. If anyone tries to remove the book, then we are back to the dark ages of book banning or even burning. You know who else burned books, right? On the other hand, if the book is prevented from being published or stocked in the first place, if school or public libraries simply…

Germany will happily destroy printed materials that are banned, and prosecute those who engage in banned speech abroad.

So if you have engaged in Holocaust denial, don't travel to Germany:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/canada/former-green-party-cand...

Re: Telegram now censoring channels in Germany for “violating local laws”

#34

Post by YXNjaGVyZWdlbgo »

tomjen3 wrote: post #28
mschuster91 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Probably makes sense. I'm not super familiar with Telegram, but to know a channel is doing stuff that's against German law probably means that someone with access to the channel reported it to authorities. Avocadolf's channels are public, you could access them on the Telegram web UI even without an account. The German government has tried to get the channel shut down for months now, after Hildmann fled the country…

I mean if Telegram doesn't have a business in Germany, why should they care what laws Germany passes? Porn sites are probably against the law in Saudi Arabia, but why is that Pornhubs problem?

If you want to do business in a country you usually have to follow the laws of the country. If you are not following these laws and you get booted out of their respective markets you can't cry censorship it's that easy.

Re: Telegram now censoring channels in Germany for “violating local laws”

#36

Post by ausbah »

GameOfFrowns wrote: post #11

Telegram was lauded by our (Germany's) public broadcasting channels as an important tool for protesters to organize against the current regime in Belarus. They apparently do not like when it happens at home too.

there's protesting then there's Neo-Nazis protesting, I don't think Germany tolerates the latter

Re: Telegram now censoring channels in Germany for “violating local laws”

#37

Post by i67vw3 »

mccorrinall wrote: post #14
GamerUncle wrote: post #7

As always German laws are a mess and they want to bend freedom. Anyway change to signal it was always the superior option.

Does signal have one-to-many communication? (like telegram channels)

Signal has groups, telegram has groups and channels. Signal has normal groups like WhatsApp, where you configure the settings so that only admins can send messages, then it might slightly become like telegram channels.

Telegram is probably the only tech in world, which has this unique mechanism of communicating. Cloud backup, groups/channels, anonymous usernames, e2e encryption feature (1 to 1, not by default), censorship resistance more than other messaging/social media companies, all bundled together.

Re: Telegram now censoring channels in Germany for “violating local laws”

#38

Post by hutzlibu »

kmeisthax wrote: post #23

Can't read German, but I'm going to assume the channels in question are full of neo-Nazis. If that's the case then this isn't anything particularly new; Germany's constitution explicitly denies freedom of speech to Nazis. I don't find this particularly objectionable on it's own; Nazis and neo-Nazis never believed in free speech to begin with. However, we should still remain wary of false positives or scope creep beyo…

"Germany's constitution explicitly denies freedom of speech to Nazis."

Not exactly like this. You are allowed to speak your mind as a Nazi. You may say you are a Nazi and also say why you think they are superior etc. blablabla.

You are not allowed, to wear certain symbols of NS times (swastika and co) and you are not allowed to deny that the holocaust happened and to glorify certain SS organisations.

Re: Telegram now censoring channels in Germany for “violating local laws”

#39

Post by sascha_sl »

kmeisthax wrote: post #23

Can't read German, but I'm going to assume the channels in question are full of neo-Nazis. If that's the case then this isn't anything particularly new; Germany's constitution explicitly denies freedom of speech to Nazis. I don't find this particularly objectionable on it's own; Nazis and neo-Nazis never believed in free speech to begin with. However, we should still remain wary of false positives or scope creep beyo…

They're certainly very adjacent, but the general trend is more into conspiracy theorists / new world order and anti-corona measures with a tendency to call for violence.
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