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Telegram might be going to be banned in Germany soon
3 years ago
The big soul devouring dragon has an announcement to make... Follow every command... if you love your soul~
I really hate to come up with politics in general, but since this one might affect me personally, I wanted to put my thoughts about it here and offer my help. If you don't want to read about the virus, politics, and radical idiots, then please don't read it. Thank you!
For everyone else, read along:
Due to racism, calls for violence, and agitation, also connected to corona-conspiracies, the German minister for inner affairs, Nancy Faeser (SPD), wants the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store to ban Telegram from its services, reminding the stores about their "social responsibility". While it's unclear what happens after that, other stores might be unaffected by this (such as the Huawei AppGallery or Aptoide)
Telegram has several other ways of being used/installed, one is to download the .apk file from their website directly, another one is to use it via Desktop or even the Web version.
So what exactly is the point in this?
This minister, well... the whole government, again doesn't know how the internet works or how any of this works. If they would want to ban Telegram, then a simple AppStore block will only affect a small number of people, plus there are tons of groups that are probably going rampage now, telling people to download the app from their Website directly, just spreading a lot more misinformation and radicalizing people to further hold a grudge against the government.
Then again if the ban actually makes people leave Telegram, there will be new ways for groups to share their nonsense and radicalize each other more and more. There are tons of other apps. So actually, this ban would make it harder to track down on them and to prevent crimes like the killing of Idar-Oberstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany from happening again. Back then a staff member of a gas station was shot because he reminded a customer to wear his mask. Of course, the more radical Covidiots pretty much celebrated this and since Telegram is their main platform for sharing such things, they polarize and radicalize each other in such groups.
The workaround of downloading the App from other services, of course, doesn't work for Apple iOS devices as far as I know, due to the lack of sideloading apps (Basically installing them from other sources than the official Apple Appstore.). At least not without a jailbreak.
The only option on Apple devices (as of now) is, to have the app installed when the ban should actually come and to use it until it stops working, but I'll have to further investigate that yet.
The minister also noted earlier, that there was the possibility of the services being DNS-blocked in Germany at some point, but most recent news doesn't comment on that. But as always there are ways to get around that (Proxies, Custom-DNS's or VPNs), but it might hit a bigger group of non-tech-savvy people.
What I want to say is, that while I really dislike what German Ministers are doing right now, I agree that it isn't good that people are radicalizing each other over a platform like Telegram up to the point of celebrating a murder, but to block the gathering spot of those people, just makes them spread and scatter more and they will find a new thing to abuse, while those, who genuinely want to use the service to just talk to people (like me) are being cut down in their ability to do so (if they don't know how to get around such a ban).
To this time right now, Telegram still exists in the Stores, but Telegram also doesn't react to the government's pleading of monitoring those radical groups and blocking them (just like they do with porn on iOS), so it is very likely that the German government might implement such a ban sooner or later.
(Sources:
https://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/net.....d-cfceadd2eb60
https://www.pcwelt.de/news/Telegram.....-11169423.html
https://www.heise.de/news/Innenmini.....n-6332582.html )
I might keep you updated about this ongoing debate, depending on the outcome, but just in case everything goes worse than expected, here is my Discord: Shadowcloud#3761
And as long as it works my Telegram: https://t.me/Shadowcloud or simply (@)Shadowcloud
If they decide to block it (or maybe you are already in a place that has already blocked this or other services) and you need help with getting around this ban, contact me on TG or Discord (or any other of my linked sites/messengers on my profile) and I'll try to help you. I've already sourced out a few options for TG and I'll help you implement them to your phone/desktop if you need it.
For everyone else, read along:
Due to racism, calls for violence, and agitation, also connected to corona-conspiracies, the German minister for inner affairs, Nancy Faeser (SPD), wants the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store to ban Telegram from its services, reminding the stores about their "social responsibility". While it's unclear what happens after that, other stores might be unaffected by this (such as the Huawei AppGallery or Aptoide)
Telegram has several other ways of being used/installed, one is to download the .apk file from their website directly, another one is to use it via Desktop or even the Web version.
So what exactly is the point in this?
This minister, well... the whole government, again doesn't know how the internet works or how any of this works. If they would want to ban Telegram, then a simple AppStore block will only affect a small number of people, plus there are tons of groups that are probably going rampage now, telling people to download the app from their Website directly, just spreading a lot more misinformation and radicalizing people to further hold a grudge against the government.
Then again if the ban actually makes people leave Telegram, there will be new ways for groups to share their nonsense and radicalize each other more and more. There are tons of other apps. So actually, this ban would make it harder to track down on them and to prevent crimes like the killing of Idar-Oberstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany from happening again. Back then a staff member of a gas station was shot because he reminded a customer to wear his mask. Of course, the more radical Covidiots pretty much celebrated this and since Telegram is their main platform for sharing such things, they polarize and radicalize each other in such groups.
The workaround of downloading the App from other services, of course, doesn't work for Apple iOS devices as far as I know, due to the lack of sideloading apps (Basically installing them from other sources than the official Apple Appstore.). At least not without a jailbreak.
The only option on Apple devices (as of now) is, to have the app installed when the ban should actually come and to use it until it stops working, but I'll have to further investigate that yet.
The minister also noted earlier, that there was the possibility of the services being DNS-blocked in Germany at some point, but most recent news doesn't comment on that. But as always there are ways to get around that (Proxies, Custom-DNS's or VPNs), but it might hit a bigger group of non-tech-savvy people.
What I want to say is, that while I really dislike what German Ministers are doing right now, I agree that it isn't good that people are radicalizing each other over a platform like Telegram up to the point of celebrating a murder, but to block the gathering spot of those people, just makes them spread and scatter more and they will find a new thing to abuse, while those, who genuinely want to use the service to just talk to people (like me) are being cut down in their ability to do so (if they don't know how to get around such a ban).
To this time right now, Telegram still exists in the Stores, but Telegram also doesn't react to the government's pleading of monitoring those radical groups and blocking them (just like they do with porn on iOS), so it is very likely that the German government might implement such a ban sooner or later.
(Sources:
https://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/net.....d-cfceadd2eb60
https://www.pcwelt.de/news/Telegram.....-11169423.html
https://www.heise.de/news/Innenmini.....n-6332582.html )
I might keep you updated about this ongoing debate, depending on the outcome, but just in case everything goes worse than expected, here is my Discord: Shadowcloud#3761
And as long as it works my Telegram: https://t.me/Shadowcloud or simply (@)Shadowcloud
If they decide to block it (or maybe you are already in a place that has already blocked this or other services) and you need help with getting around this ban, contact me on TG or Discord (or any other of my linked sites/messengers on my profile) and I'll try to help you. I've already sourced out a few options for TG and I'll help you implement them to your phone/desktop if you need it.
It's pointless to go for the medium, another one will replace it.
There is still some hope they leave TG alive, but this all just lets me lose my hope for any future governmental actions. Not that I would go on a rampage like those Idiots do, but it makes me think a lot.
And to cap it all, the EU is thinking of using their own DNS Servers now to block illegal sites more effectively (DNS4EU). Not to imagine how much they could censor stuff with that.
But then again... DNS blocks are pretty easy to overcome, but it's still pretty alarming altogether.
Zumal Frau Faeser ein Statement dazu auf Twitter gepostet hat und vergessen hat, dass ihre Partei, die SPD, sogar einen eigenen Telegram Kanal/Bot hat. Doppeltes Eigentor.
Mal schauen wie sich das alles entwickelt.
The German government is a joke. The EU government as well.
They are pretty much corrupt and lobbying for many companies.
They all seem to focus a lot on the internet and how to control it. Starting with upload filters to detect copyright misuse, going over to the DNS4EU stuff soon and ending in total and utter destruction of net-neutrality and -anonymity sooner or later.
I agree that something has to be done to those who don't play by the rules, but I can't stand these senseless attempts of trying to censor the internet, not at all, but especially not with "blocking" something from being used through conventional methods.
Hope it doesn't get banned due to optics for the government but still, even if it does get banned there is always workarounds
Bans haven't stopped us iranians, we built different 👉😎👉
For them, removal of the app from the stores could be leading to not using telegram anymore, which would be bad for me, because then I would be the only one of them using it still.
So I see it as a bit more severe still, but that's why I had many of them coming at me already asking for help, should it really happen sooner or later.
Yes, Telegram is like a safe harbor for many illegal activities. Especially the media hosting makes the platform to some bad actor's favorite tool. But banning a communication platform won't change the way people think and act. It just drive's them to yet another service. There's several other messengers out there with end-to-end encryption, some good VPNs and email providers etc. and with OTR, PGP or any similar encryption method, even FA's notes could be used for criminal activities.
But that's Germany again. Like how stubborn they were, insisting on block lists against harmful websites (like those hosting child porn), while the Chaos Computer Club demonstrated that most of it would just get deleted if you contact the providers...
They don't ban this stuff either, for.. obvious reasons.
The thing is... """"Banning"""", they are debating about throwing the app from the PlayStore and AppStore only for now, which is easily avoidable with using a third-party client, or TG's .apk directly. But even if they come up with more advanced bans like DNS or IP Bans, later on, to finally put the nail into TG's coffin, that just drives people to other messengers, or downright make them set up their own one as those Idiots did with their Video platform (not sure anymore what it was called) when Youtube kicked their asses out.
But yes... we're just repeating ourselves basically here.
There are enough ways to get around this, and seeing how they collectively share their "own information" in their groups, they definitely share their information about how to unblock TG or where to switch to in the end. So it's an endless cat and mouse game.
Germany and the EU in a nutshell. There are so many better options as to simply throw around threats to block something and rather pack the problem by its roots instead of picking each leaf individually.
But it's all just getting worse sooner or later. They just show they have no clue on how stuff like that works, they just choose one option and take it for granted that it has the wanted effect on the people. Another thing to take a look at would be DNS4EU which might have the potential to stop those who have no interest in such illegal activities and sites, from ever stumbling upon them and other good effects, but can also be used to heavily censor the internet in the future. The fact that governments, especially Germany, are still working with DNS-Blocks mostly is laughable. Sweet home 8.8.8.8/1.1.1.1 (Or in my case: PiHole+Unbound are my saviors for now.)