German minister wants Apple and Google to remove Telegram from app stores

Nancy Faeser, Germany’s interior minister, wants Apple and Google to remove Telegram from their app stores. The SPD minister said this after a consultation with ministers from various state governments where her party is the largest.

Faeser believes that the American tech companies should take their responsibility and no longer offer Telegram on their platforms, writes the German newspaper Der Spiegel. The minister believes that Apple and Google should intervene because the app is not taking sufficient action to prevent the spread of inflammatory and hateful messages. Referring to the current protests against the anti-corona measures in Germany, Faeser says it is already “a difficult time for the police”.

Boris Pistorius, fellow party member of Faeser and the Lower Saxon Minister of the Interior, calls Telegram “a driver for conspiracy theories and right-wing extremism”. In December, in an interview with Der Spiegel, he demanded action from Google and Apple. “What is happening in the Telegram groups and channels is against the rules of Apple and Google, who offer this app in their stores. We urgently need to talk to them and convince them to stop distributing Telegram. Pistorius said at the time.

Telegram, Google and Apple have not yet responded to the statements of the German ministers. Telegram founder Pawel Durow has said in the past that the app adheres to Apple and Google rules.

Several governments and organizations are demanding that Apple and Google ban Telegram from their app stores. Last year, the American organization Coalition for a Safer Web sued Apple for not banning Telegram from the App Store. According to the organization, Telegram is used by criminals and Telegram does too little to tackle criminal behavior on its own platform.