Germany’s Digital Violence Law Extends to Private Chats

Closed messaging groups on platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram face new legal scrutiny under a draft law presented by Federal Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig, NIUS reported.

The proposed legislation targeting “digital violence” expands the reach of the law into private communications. The draft from the Federal Ministry of Justice specifies that statements made within closed chat groups could carry legal consequences, according to NIUS.

Alongside WhatsApp and Telegram, the draft explicitly lists Signal, Threema, iMessage, and the internal messaging features of Facebook and Instagram. The ministry justified the expansion by stating that digital violence increasingly occurs within closed chat groups on messenger services.

The determining factor for whether a group falls under the new rules will be its size and the composition of its members. The draft does not establish a fixed participant threshold. Instead, it targets groups where the membership structure enables an uncontrollable spread of content beyond the initial participants.

Victims of punishable statements within these groups will gain broader legal avenues against authors. The draft introduces a judicial disclosure procedure empowering courts to compel providers to surrender stored user data, including names, home addresses, telephone numbers, and IP addresses.

Judges will also receive the authority to order providers to temporarily secure relevant data and create copies of contested content. This measure aims to preserve evidence throughout ongoing legal proceedings, provided the statement in question meets specific statutory offenses such as insult, defamation, malicious gossip, incitement of the masses, or threats.

This version marks a notable expansion compared to the initial draft from April, which explicitly exempted pure messenger and email services from its scope. The updated text brings larger closed chat groups directly into the regulatory framework.

Beyond messenger services, the legislative package introduces measures allowing courts to order the temporary suspension of user accounts on social networks in cases of severe personal rights violations. Such orders would not require a prior criminal conviction, as civil courts would independently assess the prerequisites.

Users affected by a suspension would retain access to read posts and send private messages during the restriction period. However, publishing, commenting on, or sharing new content would be prohibited. This specific suspension mechanism applies strictly to social networks rather than standalone messenger accounts.

Courts will also gain the power to mandate the removal of unlawful content from social networking platforms independently of any account suspension. A separate addition creates a new paragraph, Section 201c of the Criminal Code, which criminalizes the dissemination of damaging content under a falsely assumed identity of a living person under specific conditions.