The head of the German Interior Ministry allowed the blocking of Telegram in the country

Blocking the Telegram messenger in Germany cannot be ruled out, but this would be a last resort, Interior Minister Nancy Feather said in an interview with Die Zeit newspaper.

“We are a state of law, but we cannot exclude this [blocking] either. Blocking would be a very serious step and clearly a last resort. Before that, all other measures must be exhausted,” she said.

From February 1, 2022, according to amendments to the Law on the Protection of Rights on the Web, social networks are required to report illegal content to the authorities, the newspaper wrote. This rule applies to resources with at least 2 million registered users. Administrators no longer have to simply delete illegal posts, as before, but report this to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). FACEBOOK and GOOGLE disagreed with the requirement to check all messages themselves and pass questionable content to the BKA. The companies sued.

Earlier in January, German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said in an interview with Bild newspaper that Telegram management should appoint a representative in Germany for legal inquiries that now have to be sent to Dubai, where Telegram is headquartered.