This will be interesting.<p>Some background for the discussion:<p>- Germany has a different take on freedom of speech from the US. There are things that you cannot say (holocaust denial, inciting racial violence). We can argue about this, but it's deeply ingrained in the legal system and unrealistic to change<p>- Germany has a special law regulating responsibilities and content moderation in social media (NetzDG, think section 230 but wider). This law - among other things - mandates content moderation and cooperation with law enforcement<p>- A key point in the debate surrounding Telegram is the question of whether or not it is a "platform", that is an open social network. Telegram argues that it's a messenger, but in practice, there are many open and public groups used for public debates. So Germany argues that it should be regulated in accordance with the NetzDG, which Telegram denies.<p>- Recently, there have been a number of death threats and criminal conspiracies which were orchestrated via Telegram; on top, a huge chunk of covid deniers and co are active in this space.<p>- Telegram so far has not cooperated at all (in contrast with other social platforms, even TikTok).<p>So in essence, this is currently a battle about the German government saying: Look here, you got a bunch of criminals and terrorists (literally, with weapons) on your platform, you need to do something about it.<p>[edit] Here is a report on the assassination plot and subsequent raids: <a href="https://www.euronews.com/2021/12/15/german-police-launch-raids-in-dresden-over-alleged-anti-vax-death-threats-to-governor" rel="nofollow">https://www.euronews.com/2021/12/15/german-police-launch-rai...</a>