We have deep respect for German and other languages, but HN is an English-language site, so posts here need to be in English.<p>That may require waiting until a good English-language article appears, but the more significant the topic is, the more (and sooner) this is likely to happen.<p><a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20english%20language%20site&sort=byDate&type=comment" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...</a>
This is clearly a bait and switch. If illegal actions are being perpetrated (e.g., death threats) then prosecute them. What this is all about is incremental conditioning towards normalizing censorship for "local law" violations … the same kinds of wanton "laws" conjured up by all the dictatorial regimes that all the western societies are quickly drifting towards.<p>The German government has even tried attacking Gab, and regardless of what you may think of Gab, it is not a good thing if you do not want to find yourself one day having overslept living in a totalitarian regime. Just consider the implications of a foreign government taking action against a US website, wholly based in the USA, because it does not like things on the website that are no only legal in the USA, protected by the fundamental rights and laws of the land (Constitution), and are in line with all principles of human rights.<p>It would be evil and unethical for the USA to, e.g., use the US government to attack a French website for disparaging things about the USA or even just negatively discussing actions and behaviors of Americans, just as much as it would be evil for anyone else to do that.<p>We are entering a really dangerous situation where people are sleepwalking into supporting authoritarianisms, simply because they are conditioned to think they are part of the in-group. But that never lasts once the trap doors are slammed shut.<p>You either support freedom, free speech, and human rights or you don't; there is no freedom and human rights light.
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.<p>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.<p>The blocking happens after German minister of interior had a meeting with Telegram directors a few days ago.
Avoid censorship with this one weird trick: Print the information in a book, and put it in a library, or even on a school curriculum, if you can. If anyone tries to remove the book, then we are back to the dark ages of book banning or even burning. You know who else burned books, right?<p>On the other hand, if the book is prevented from being published or stocked in the first place, if school or public libraries simply refuse to carry it, teachers don't assign it, or if the information is not in book form, nobody cares.
Brazil supreme court is toying with the idea of banning Telegram before this years presidential election, as they were ignored by the Telegram team.<p>I wonder if Telegram will adopt the same thing they did in Germany here in Brazil to prevent the ban...
My comment will appear abstract compared to the vast majority of free speech-related comments.<p>I read the article translated into English: <a href="https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&hl=en&u=https://netzpolitik.org/2022/nach-gespraechen-mit-bundesregierung-telegram-sperrt-erstmals-kanaele-in-deutschland-wegen-lokalen-gesetzesverstoessen/&client=webapp" rel="nofollow">https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=de&tl=en&hl=en&u=h...</a><p>Then, I went to read this person's Wiki page:<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attila_Hildmann" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attila_Hildmann</a><p>He sounds like a reasonable person until 2015. I am not a psychiatrist, but this person sounds like they are descending into serious mental illness. How else do you go from a health food public persona... publish multiple cookbooks on the matter, the descend into some kind of 1980s "crazy person" talking about Holocaust denial, COVID-19 conspiracy theories, etc.?<p>This person needs help from mental health professionals. Plain and simple.<p>Please do not read this post as someone apologising for anti-semitic comments -- directly or indirectly. No, I reject (200%!) anti-semitic comments from _mentally healthy people_. This person has gone "over the edge"!<p>Does anyone else feel the same as me? I hope his family can get him help. He should go back to healthy cookbooks and forget about all the crazy conspiracy theories...
Can't read German, but I'm going to assume the channels in question are full of neo-Nazis. If that's the case then this isn't anything particularly new; Germany's constitution explicitly denies freedom of speech to Nazis.<p>I don't find this particularly objectionable on it's own; Nazis and neo-Nazis never believed in free speech to begin with. However, we should still remain wary of false positives or scope creep beyond this narrow carve-out.
The article also notes: The channels are only blocked, if you have a German phone number. If you have an Austrian phone number you can still read them.
If they are holocaust deniers, As much as I love free speech, I can understand where the german government is coming from. we can't allow THAT to ever happen again.<p>This will probably get flagged or downvoted to oblivion but meanwhile, no one bats an eye at the worldwide brushing under the rug of the Palestinian Apartheid.
Telegram was lauded by our (Germany's) public broadcasting channels as an important tool for protesters to organize against the current regime in Belarus. They apparently do not like when it happens at home too.
This is what happens when you have a centralized software.<p>Germany can just get the app removed from app stores:<p><a href="https://voi.id/en/technology/114013/senior-german-official-asks-telegram-to-be-removed-from-app-store-and-play-store-accused-of-protecting-extremis" rel="nofollow">https://voi.id/en/technology/114013/senior-german-official-a...</a><p>And this is true of other centralized software:<p><a href="https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/09/18/the-freest-platform-on-the-web" rel="nofollow">https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/09/18/the-freest-platform-...</a>