Ladies and gentlemen,
Attendees of re:publica,

I am pleased to be here with you today, but today’s dreadful events at Kurfürstendamm are also still very much on my mind.

My thoughts are with the family of the victim and with those who have been injured, some of them severely. Their world will not be the same again after today’s events. I am deeply shocked by what happened. I wish all those affected strength and I wish the injured a swift and complete recovery.

And I would like to thank the many emergency and rescue workers. They arrived incredibly quickly, secured the site and took care of the injured – my heartfelt thanks to all who helped!

Ladies and gentlemen,

This speech is important to me because it is the first time that I am attending re:publica. I’ve had the chance to explore the festival grounds this afternoon, and I am impressed by the great ideas and innovative spirit at this conference – despite the difficult political situation.

Attending re:publica is a complicated matter for the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community, because we have different perspectives on many issues. What powers should our security agencies have when investigating digital crime? What are the legal limits of the right to information privacy in criminal prosecution? There are different perspectives on these issues. My view as Federal Minister of the Interior may sometimes differ from yours. But of course we need to discuss our positions, weigh the different legitimate interests and advocate for our own positions.

My goal is to find viable, pragmatic solutions that are more than just a minimal compromise. And that is why I am here today.

The digital dimension of the historic shift requires answers

Ladies and gentlemen,

Russia’s war against Ukraine has shaken the foundations of Germany’s foreign and security policy. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz called this war a “historic shift”. Today, I would like to talk about the digital aspects of this historic shift.

Russia’s war of aggression does not only cause terrible suffering for people in Ukraine. It also has potentially far-reaching consequences for our democracy and social cohesion in Germany. What this historic shift means to me in digital terms is being vigilant and keeping a close eye on both visible and hidden threats, so that our government and society can adequately respond to them.

Today, I would like to point out and discuss with you the areas in which we must make our government and society more resilient. For me, this also means that our home affairs policy must be able to defend itself to protect our free democratic basic order.

The war against Ukraine is also information warfare

Ladies and gentlemen,

Since the beginning of its invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government has been trying on a large scale to influence public opinion and justify its war in violation of international law by spreading disinformation and manipulated images and videos.

Reports that Ukraine is threatening Russia with nuclear weapons, that neo-Nazis form a part of the Ukrainian government, or that the Ukrainians themselves are responsible for massacres such as the one in Bucha are invented out of nowhere. These lies are also shared on social networks in Germany. The problem is always the same. If a lie is told often enough, something will stick in people’s minds, even if it is only the feeling that something is wrong.

Freedom of expression has limits

A key goal of the Russian government’s information warfare is dividing our society. Russia systematically disseminates false information and insidiously twists news to turn people against Ukraine and undermine public trust in our governmental institutions.

This poses a serious dilemma to our democracy because freedom of expression is very valuable. It is at the core of our free, open society. But I am certain that we cannot stand by and watch as another government tries to destabilise our society by spreading lies and war propaganda!

And that is why it was the right decision to ban Russia Today and other Kremlin-backed propaganda channels from broadcasting their content in Germany. We will also urge platform operators to do more to at least label false information and Russia’s war propaganda and to remove the most unacceptable disinformation.

Measures against disinformation

But government alone cannot counter disinformation and war propaganda. To be honest, government is very rarely able to solve problems entirely on its own.

Tackling this problem effectively requires at least the approval of civil society, or better yet its active support, with each and every one of us showing courage and defending our democracy when it is most needed. Fighting against disinformation and anti-democratic activities is a task for the whole of society.

That is why we as the Federal Government support digital education, media literacy and digital participation. For example, we provide funding for projects such as the digital driving licence and the 2022 Digital Day. Both projects focus on helping people of all ages across Germany to improve their digital skills. We want all people to have access to the digital world and be able to navigate it securely and confidently. This also means that they must be able to identify false information.

At the same time, we must rebut obvious false information quickly and effectively and, if possible, ask platform providers to remove it. For this reason, immediately after the war began, my ministry set up an interministerial and inter-agency task force. In specific cases, we also employ the debunking method, which actively corrects false information.

This is important because at the end of the day, our resilience towards Russia’s war propaganda is also a matter of public trust in our media landscape and government institutions.

Enforcing the law online

Ladies and gentlemen,

Those who incite violence clearly cross the lines of freedom of expression. We must not and we will not accept death threats or incitement to violence. I also say this in view of the most recent episode of the German late-night talk show ZDF Magazin Royale, which many of you have probably seen.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, certain groups became radicalised. Messaging services such as Telegram played a key role in this radicalisation process. The platform was used to spread lies and even death threats and calls for violence against policy-makers, journalists and researchers. Extremists used Telegram to coordinate gatherings where they threatened people in front of their homes.

I put a lot of public pressure on Telegram, and we are now discussing this problem. I am very pleased that Telegram has responded to almost all of the Federal Criminal Police Office’s requests for it to remove extremist content, and this content is no longer available.

It must be clear that we will consistently prosecute death threats and other criminal offences, both online and offline. People who spread violent fantasies, hatred and incitement will face consequences.

Cyber security

Ladies and gentlemen,

We are currently seeing how closely external and internal security are linked to each other. This is especially true with regard to cyber security. Cyber attacks in wartime do not only affect the parties to the conflict – they can in fact cause global disruptions.

We recently had this experience when a satellite internet network was attacked. This attack was directed against Ukraine, but it also had an impact on Germany.

We must be able to rely on our critical infrastructure such as utilities, hospitals and transport routes in emergency situations. Under the IT Security Act 2.0, we have significantly expanded the number of companies required to take technical measures to prevent cyber attacks. In addition, a large number of operators must implement attack detection systems.

A new Cyber Security Agenda

I will also present our new Cyber Security Agenda before the summer recess. Today, I would already like to outline a few measures included in the agenda which we will implement during this legislative term.

The threats posed by cyber attacks have increased dramatically. Passive safeguards alone are not always sufficient to address these threats. Instead, we need powers of threat prevention to avoid, stop or at least mitigate cyber attacks.

Only the Federal Government can effectively counter complex threats in cyberspace. We will therefore give the Federal Government a leading role in preventing and countering cyber threats and we will enshrine this power in our constitution, the Basic Law.

Allow me to emphasise that this does not mean that we are planning to carry out hack backs as a form of revenge. But we must consider measures targeting the IT infrastructure used for cyber attacks. This means that we need targeted measures to identify the perpetrators in Germany and abroad, to uncover their tactics and to prevent or at least mitigate attacks.

We will also make the Federal Office for Information Security the central IT security agency and we will significantly intensify the cooperation between the federal and state levels. So far, the Federal Office for Information Security has only been able to provide ad hoc administrative assistance. By contrast, a central agency will be able to cooperate with other agencies in permanent ways and establish common information systems.

Furthermore, we will continue to step up the Networks of the Federal Goverment project to strengthen our networks. This will include defining and quickly implementing a more modern target architecture with a higher security level. And we will significantly improve counter-espionage and cyber defence measures.

As you can see, government must increase its resilience in this area because our critical infrastructure serves millions of people. But ensuring cyber security is also a task for the whole of society. Every user of IT systems must take responsibility for their own actions and protect their systems and accounts.

An active digital civil society

Ladies and gentlemen,

Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has shown that one actor alone cannot take the lead in extreme situations. When Germany was receiving thousands of refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine every day, government and civil society had to work together.

In a matter of days, thousands of people coordinated their support on digital platforms and helped the refugees. The impact these civil society initiatives had is impressive. My sincere thanks to everyone providing refugee assistance!

But civil society engagement cannot replace government’s capacity to act. This is the bitter lesson we had to learn in 2015. Government must also do its part and in particular provide quick and targeted information.

That is why my ministry quickly created the digital help platform “Germany4Ukraine”, which is also available as an app. People fleeing the war in Ukraine can use the platform to directly apply for a residence permit in many municipalities and districts or to access other services.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, we have focused on cooperation with civil society and the business community. For example, we have created the platform “Unterkunft Ukraine” (Housing Ukraine) and collaborated with Airbnb.org. And we have supported Alliance4Ukraine, where stakeholders from civil society, the business community and foundations join forces to organise help for refugees.

There are many things that civil society can organise better and quicker than government can. It is the responsibility of a resilient government to support these initiatives in a way that allows civil society to work as efficiently as possible.

This approach also reflects my understanding of the role of government: we have a shared responsibility for our community and social cohesion. When civil society initiatives are successful, government should not create parallel structures, but rather should stay in the background and support the initiatives. This is possible if we have modern digital solutions which help to quickly bring government and civil society together.

For me, this shared responsibility, which motivates citizens to get involved themselves and raises awareness of the value of cooperation between public and private actors, is a key strength of our democratic civil society.

And that is why I am confident that our open, democratic system will prevail.

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