Telegram does little to counteract this - they profit from this stage and rarely react to state actors.
To counter the spread of disinformation and conspiracy narratives, the CeMAS report proposes the following recommendations:
- Increase public and political pressure on Telegram - Telegram fears for its reputation and especially the consequence of being removed from Google and Apple app stores.
- To start investigating the perpetrators even if platforms do not cooperate. This also requires greater awareness among (investigating) authorities of the potential threat posed by digital hate and violence.
- It is necessary to consider measures to prevent the monetary profit from and the financing of disinformation and conspiracy ideology in order to limit their spread. Telegram has so far hardly and arbitrarily used blocking and deletions (so-called deplatforming).
- Transparency reports and external control, including via legal regulations such as the Digital Services Act, must be enforced.
The entire report can be read here.
CeMAS and the "Landecker re|con project" make anti-democratic trends and developments easier to recognise at an early stage, they analyse them and derive counter-strategies and recommendations on action for civil society, politics and security authorities.