[estranhosidade]

The article is written in German, but with a Google Translate you can understand the just of it. Apparently Telegram added a new blocking system based on phone numbers, sorta a geo-blocking thing, and people with German phone numbers registered on their Telegram accounts aren't able to access those blocked channels.

Also, unlike the previous block this one applies even to the users who are using the app downloaded directly from Telegram site and not the iOS/Google Play version.

The blocking happens after German minister of interior had a meeting with Telegram directors a few days ago.

[pessimizer]

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.

Germany is also one of those countries that blanket bans particular groups/parties in general, which the US didn't really do until after 9/11. Banning a group chat isn't much different.

[mschuster91]

> 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 and engaged in Holocaust denial (which is a crime here).

The problem is that unlike all other major social networks, Telegram refuses to comply with German laws (in particular the NetzDG) and has refused to name a contact person for the authorities so that egregious violations could be stopped. I read an article that claimed the only form of contact between German authorities and Telegram used to be a bilateral anti-terror coordination with the US FBI, which makes sense given the common problem of radical Islamist terrorism.

[skrause]

> Germany is also one of those countries that blanket bans particular groups/parties in general

You make it sound like Germany is constantly banning political parties. There have been exactly two bans of political parties in the post-war history of Germany: A nazi party in 1952 and a communist party in 1956. Also don't forget who occupied Germany in this decade and made a lot of its decisions.

[t0bia_s]

Another reason to use Element (Matrix), where phone number is not required.

[Arnt]

Does Matrix have groups like Telegram's? I thought Matrix was just a messenger app.

[doowop]

The headline of your post is very misleading since the linked articles headline translates to “Telegram blocks(!) channels”, not cencors.

By mistranslating this to “censoring” you are using the language of those who are actively distributing fake news.

Giving you the benefit of the doubt, I hope that you’ll correct the title of the post.

[stjohnswarts]

Well telegram has to abide by German law, otherwise authorities will seize all their assets in Germany (and maybe even Europe?) and shut them down and sue them international court for ignoring the will of a Nation. I don't think Telegram had much choice in the matter. Thanks for the summary.

[A4ET8a8uTh0]

I never used Telegram. How do channels work? Does Telegram has that kind of visibility into what is happening in them?

[pepesza]

Telegram does not have any meaningful e2e encryption (apart from 1-1 on-demand stuff nobody uses). So yes, everything is visible to Telegram.

[estranhosidade]

As far as I understand: many people use Telegram channels as a sort of Twitter-like social media, since you can set the channel to publicly available and anyone with app can read what you wrote, and even interact with you through, like voting through giving your post an emoji or commenting on it (if you enabled comments).

[frollo]

Channels are extremely public, in the sense that you can access them even without installing telegram [1] and there are websites which can generate RSS feeds for all the posts of a channel or things like that [2]. So this is not exactly a private conversation we're talking about, more like the printing of broadsheets to be nailed to every other house's wall.

[1] For example, this is a post in Telegram's own public channel https://t.me/telegram/167 [2] For example, this two: https://tg.i-c-a.su/ and https://rss.app/rss-feed/create-Telegram-rss-feed

[JaimeThompson]

Telegram has, as far as I know, no revenue model at all so they most likely are mining the heck out of the users and what they post.

[viktorcode]

Telegram blocked calls to violence before, so technically it's nothing new.

[kyberias]

Gist of it.