On March 24, the Federal Ministry of Justice of Germany, after several unsuccessful attempts to contact from Telegram, sent a notification to the administration of the messenger by sending a message to the Telegram publication about investigations open in the country. The messenger must comply with legal requirements for the removal of prohibited content and appoint a representative in the country with whom the German regulators can contact directly.
The German authorities have given Telegram until April 20. After that, the messenger will be fined €55 million and then it will face blocking in the country if there is no response from the Telegram management.
On January 10, Germany demanded that Telegram appoint an official representative in the country to quickly remove banned content due to anti-COVID protests gaining momentum. The Interior Ministry spokesman explained that the German authorities currently send all requests to the UAE, where Telegram is headquartered, and most of the requests do not reach the only known Telegram mailbox in Dubai at all.
On February 1, the media reported that the German Ministry of Justice had launched two investigations into Telegram. The messenger for each of them can be fined several million euros for not removing prohibited content and refusing to impose restrictions on the distribution by users of publications with threats and calls for disobedience from COVID dissidents.
On February 4, Telegram made contact with the German authorities, but the conversation did not turn out particularly direct. The German authorities sent two letters to the Telegram headquarters in the UAE, but they were ignored.
On February 12, Telegram began to promptly comply with the requirements of the German authorities. Messenger moderators blocked 64 channels in the country with prohibited content, including calls for murder and violence, as well as disobedience to the law due to the pandemic. But he ignored the rest of the demands of the country's authorities.
It is noteworthy that just recently, Telegram was almost blocked in Brazil for similar requirements.
On March 18, 2022, the Brazilian Supreme Court ruled to block the Telegram application in the country at the request of the prosecutor's office and the police due to the placement of fakes and prohibited content there, which the platform administration did not remove at the request of the court.
After this decision, Durov apologized to the Supreme Court of Brazil for the negligence in processing requests from the department and the poor work of his team. He promised to fix everything, asked for a delay in the implementation of all decisions and not to block the messenger.
On March 19, a Brazilian court granted Telegram a day to fulfill all the requirements.
On March 20, 2022, the Telegram administration complied with all the requirements of the Brazilian Supreme Court, including the blocking of accounts and the removal of certain publications in channels with fake information. The judge withdrew the decision to block the messenger. An official representative of Telegram has appeared in the country. Platform moderators will respond more quickly to requests from the Brazilian court and law enforcement agencies.
bbabo.Net