Telegram: Cooperation with German authorities varies greatly
Whether and to what extent Telegram cooperates with the authorities has always been controversial. The platform appears to comply with at least one regulation.
(Image: Sergei Elagin/Shutterstock.com)
Telegram has sent more than 400 removal orders to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) since October 2023. This was announced by the BKA at the request of heise online. The orders were all implemented promptly by Telegram, said a BKA spokesperson. According to the authority, these orders were deletion processes in accordance with the European Union's Terrorist Content Online Regulation (TCO).
Obviously, issues under legislation other than the very strict regulation against terrorist content are more difficult. The Vice President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Sinan Selen, emphasized on Wednesday that Telegram is not one of those platforms that respond quickly and very well to information from the authorities. Although there is cooperation, "I wouldn't see Telegram as being totally on the plus side," said Selen.
In the case of the Network Enforcement Act in particular, the German predecessor to the EU Digital Services Act, Telegram did not cooperate sufficiently in the opinion of the enforcement authority, the Federal Office of Justice. About the Digital Services Act, which has also applied to Telegram since February, EU Commission sources say that the controversial provider is responding to letters from the Commission, at least when it comes to formal questions such as the number of users on the platform of Pawel Durow, who has been charged in France.
No inventory data for two years
However, the company does not cooperate with the BKA in other areas: In response to an inquiry from heise online, a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior confirmed that "Telegram has not been transmitting inventory data in response to requests from the BKA" for some time – The last time this was the case was in 2022. In this context, inventory data includes data on users such as their telephone numbers, names, email or IP addresses of Telegram accounts.
(anw)
