Shortly after the arrest of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov, a warning message began appearing among the German far-right that had been viewed more than 85,000 times: “Back up your Telegram data as soon as possible and clean up your account.”
The message came from Kim Dotcom, the founder of the now-shuttered digital piracy site Megaupload, a German national facing extradition from New Zealand who knows a thing or two about penalties for online misconduct.
Telegram users may be justified in fearing the harsh punishment given by French authorities to Durov for alleged complicity in crimes such as sharing child pornography and drug trafficking that took place on Telegram: If Durov can be held accountable for crimes committed on the app, the logic goes, then those who commit crimes can also be held accountable.
Researchers at Germany’s Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (CeMAS) are tracking around 3,000 channels and 2,000 groups linked to Germany’s far-right and conspiracy theory movements. Users are known to post racist and anti-Semitic hate speech, and some groups contain Nazi symbols, Holocaust denial and calls to violence, openly flouting Germany’s strict criminal laws. But for groups to leave the platform, which has built a global infrastructure for radicalization and offline demonstrations over the past five years, is like starting from scratch online.
“If you’re a terrorist or an extremist, you’re going to take the path of least resistance, and in this case, that probably means Telegram,” Adam Hadley, founder and executive director of the UN-backed organization Tech Against Terrorism, told WIRED.
Durov’s arrest is a warning to Telegram, which has suddenly found itself under the scrutiny of European law enforcement and regulators. The neo-Nazis’ favorite app faces an existential threat that they’re not quite sure how to respond to.
“Bridge Technology”
After Durov’s arrest on Saturday, alarm spread quickly. Just 90 minutes after French media reported that Durov’s private jet had been intercepted by authorities at Paris’ Le Bourget airport, a far-right channel posted that his arrest “may be politically motivated and a way to gain access to the personal data of Telegram users.”
The channel is linked to the Reichsbürger movement, which believes Germany is not a sovereign nation and is still occupied by the Allies. German police foiled their coup plot in 2022 and found more than $500,000 in gold and cash, hundreds of guns, knives, bulletproof helmets and bullets.
Similar messages began spreading across the app. That night, Austrian extremist Martin Sellner wrote (translated here by Google Translate) “The ‘liberal West’ is turning off the democracy simulation. All communication channels may soon collapse. Will Musk be arrested next?” The message was viewed more than 40,000 times, according to an estimate by TGStat, the Telegram analytics tool that provided the view counts cited in this article.
Sellner was banned from Germany in March after he gave a keynote speech at the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD)’s infamous conference in Potsdam in November, where he outlined plans for members of the burgeoning far-right party to carry out mass deportations if it came to power. The AfD won state elections in eastern Germany on Sunday, marking a historic victory for the far-right, the first since World War II.
