Germany tried to silence a far-right outlet. Its Telegram reach grew instead.
Olga Konsevych & Sonya Dymova
April 30, 2026
One of Europe’s influential far-right media outlets saw a substantial surge in Telegram subscribers after the German government tried — and failed — to permanently ban the publication for its “unspeakable hatred” toward Jews, migrants and democratic institutions.
Compact magazine, viewed by many as a mouthpiece of the country’s far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD), saw its Telegram base grow by about a third in the months after Germany’s then-Interior Minister Nancy Faeser ordered a ban on the media publication in July 2024. The ban, which received worldwide media coverage, was in place for just a month before it was successfully appealed.
The July 16, 2024, order listed several of the publication’s online channels — including Telegram, YouTube, X, Facebook, Instagram and VK — among the services that were not to be used during the ban. Yet media reports suggest that some of these accounts, including Telegram, remained accessible during the ban period.
According to the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism’s (CCIJ) exclusive analysis, Compact’s Telegram audience continued to grow during the outlet’s short-lived 2024 ban. The analysis of over 14,000 posts made between June 2022 and October 2024 found that Compact used its Telegram channel often to dispute Ukraine’s sovereignty, denigrate refugees and promote the German far right.
Compact did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Based on CCIJ’s analysis, which measured Compact’s traffic on Telegram before and after the ban, Compact’s Telegram audience remained relatively stable until early 2024, when it began to rise sharply – a trend that intensified after the outlet’s month-long ban that summer.
By April 2025, while the appeals process was still in motion, the outlet had expanded its digital presence further, launching a second Telegram channel for video content, Compact Magazin Offizieller.
When Faeser ordered the ban on Compact in July, she called the magazine “the central mouthpiece of the right-wing extremist scene.”
“This magazine incites unspeakable hatred against Jews, against people with a migration background, and against our parliamentary democracy,” Faeser said at the time. In conjunction with the attempted ban, the government also carried out raids on Compact’s main office as well as the homes of some of the magazine’s management and biggest shareholders at locations around the country.
Compact challenged Faeser’s order in court and, four weeks later, the ban was put on hold pending an appeal by the magazine.
– Nancy Faeser, former Interior Minister of Germany
Jürgen Elsässer, Compact’s editor-in-chief and one of the magazine’s founders, called Faeser’s order “dictatorial” and the worst attack on press freedom in Germany in decades.
“You are treating us like a mafia, like a terrorist group. But we are a legal press organ with a clean criminal record,” he told Reuters TV at the time.
Elsässer is a known supporter of the AfD, which has made stunning gains in popularity in recent years. He has promoted the political party since its founding in 2013, distributing copies of Compact at AfD party congresses and appearing on stage with AfD candidates at political rallies.
In last year’s German elections, AfD almost doubled its number of seats and is now the second-leading party in the country’s parliament.
In June 2025, Compact secured a victory in the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig, permanently striking down the ban.
The appellate court did agree with the government’s stance that Compact promoted anti-constitutional ideas such as “remigration,” which ignores Germany’s principles of equality and human dignity.
But the judges then stated that these narratives did not dominate the outlet’s overall activity, nor justified silencing the publication permanently.
The court stressed that to apply such an instrument, the German government would have to prove that radical concepts dominate the entirety of an organization’s activity. Some of it was provocative, they said, but still within the bounds of protected political speech.
As the court proceedings were playing out, Compact’s reach had grown significantly in the 11 months that elapsed from the time Faeser ordered the ban until it was permanently struck down by the court.
On the day the ban was ordered, the number of followers of Compact’s main Telegram channel stood at 64,511, according to TGStat historical data. By the time Germany’s Federal Administrative Court ultimately overturned the ban, the number of subscribers rose to 81,652 – an increase of 26.6%.
A large number of its posts sought to delegitimize the Ukrainian government – calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s administration a “terror regime” and casting doubt on Russia’s responsibility for atrocities in Ukraine.
For example, when evidence emerged of the massacre of civilians by Russian forces in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha in March 2022, Compact presented the tragedy as a false narrative, used by the West to justify NATO and Germany’s expanding role in the war.
Compact’s anti-immigration messages portrayed Ukrainian refugees in Germany as criminals and demanded that they be deported. The channels promulgated conspiracy theories, including false claims about “US bioweapon programs in Ukraine.”
Demonstrators hold a sign reading “Russia kills children every day” at a rally against the war in Ukraine in downtown Frankfurt am Main on Oct. 11, 2024. The protest called for the handover of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the International Criminal Court. Photograph: Andre Pain / CCIJ
Yuliia Dukach, head of disinformation investigations at OpenMinds, a defense tech company, collaborated with CCIJ on its analysis of Compact’s Telegram messages and says there is one major risk associated with the platform.
“The danger is that Compact’s messages don’t always look like obvious disinformation,” Dukach said. “They mix selective facts with insinuations and emotional framing, pushing audiences toward conclusions.”
According to Dukach, the challenge is not only in proving what is false, but also in recognizing broader patterns of interference. She said she focuses on key indicators, such as, “Are Russian journalists quoted? Are Russian politicians quoted? Are Russian resources reposted?”
Much like Info Defense and UKR LEAKS, Compact is one of many Telegram channels sharing disinformation online every day. Research from the European Union’s EuvsDisinfo project shows that many of these channels maximize their influence across Europe by sharing similar messaging – engaging in anti-migration fearmongering, conspiracy theories and the delegitimization of democratic institutions.
Compact’s new ‘lifeline’
The ban on Compact’s publications and distribution was in place from July 16 to August 14, 2024. The magazine then launched a comeback campaign featuring statements from its founder, photos of trucks loading printed issues and posts about the stories that allegedly triggered the ban.
One of them was an interview with Maria Zakharova, the official spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry. Compact’s editors told subscribers that “48 hours after the publication of this video, Faeser’s police officers moved in to shut down COMPACT.”
Throughout the legal battle that followed, Compact relied on its Telegram channel to continue spreading its messages. With minimal moderation and a lack of strict guidelines, Telegram was fertile ground for Compact to operate without interference or regulation.
An analysis of Compact’s Telegram posts reveals a consistent pattern of narratives justifying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, vilifying Germany’s political leadership and promoting the far-right AfD as the rightful alternative. The posts also target refugees and Ukrainians living in Germany under temporary protection.
Experts say Compact has systematically sought to undermine the legitimacy of Ukraine’s leadership by using Telegram to recycle fabricated corruption scandals. In 2023, it spread the claim that Zelenskyy’s mother-in-law had secretly bought a villa on the Red Sea coast in Egypt. Fact-checkers at VoxUkraine exposed the story as a fake, yet its repetition in Compact’s Telegram feed reinforced the image of a leader enriching his family during war.
“These are recurring fake stories: from Hitler’s car to a villa for his mother-in-law…” Dukach explained. “Ideally, if something is a fake and was not intended to cause harm, a correction is usually published. However, if there are many such fake claims and no apologies appear, then it can be assumed that the message should be considered disinformation.”
The strategy repeated itself after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam – a critical structure supplying water to southern Ukraine and to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – in June 2023. Compact’s Moscow correspondent Hansjörg Müller, himself a former AfD parliamentarian, echoed Russian talking points, suggesting Kyiv had sabotaged its own infrastructure.
The Telegram channel posted a promotion for a report by Müller, including a link to Compact’s YouTube channel, which had close to 200,000 subscribers at the time.
By the end of 2024, Compact had begun openly supporting then-U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump.
– Christoph Heubner, executive vice president of the International Auschwitz Committee
Mainstreaming the AfD
Compact’s Telegram channel isn’t limited to spreading pro-Kremlin narratives – it appears to see itself as a campaign tool for the far-right AfD in Germany.
For many years, Compact has positioned itself as the mouthpiece of the populist party.
In 2024, ahead of the federal elections, Compact published a special issue titled “AfD – the success story of an ostracized party.” The framing of the issue was clear: AfD was not to be seen as a radical party, but as a misunderstood victim of persecution by the political mainstream.
Other posts reinforced this approach by painting the ruling coalition as extremists. One Telegram post declared, “The real German extremists can be found in the Green Youth,” using an attack on a televised speech by a young Green politician as proof that the government’s allies were “bizarre and detached from reality.”
According to Dukach, these are examples of manipulation rather than straightforward disinformation.
Immigration has also been a frequent target of Compact’s vitriol.
The Solingen knife attack in August 2024 triggered one of Compact’s most intensive anti-migration social media campaigns.
On Aug. 23, 2024, during celebrations marking the 650th anniversary of Solingen, a Syrian refugee carried out a brutal knife attack that left three people dead and eight injured. It was one of several high-profile knife attacks in Germany in 2024-2025, some of which involved foreign suspects.
Between August 2024 and August 2025, the outlet published 27 Telegram posts related to the Solingen tragedy, repeatedly linking it to what it called the government’s “failed migration policy.”
In one post referencing the attack, Compact demanded “the immediate closure of the borders” and suggested that “(a)nyone who wants to live under Sharia law must leave the country.”
For many Ukrainians living in Germany, online narratives about refugees feel disconnected from their everyday lives. Olha Shendryk, who leads a Ukrainian-language group at a Frankfurt daycare created for refugee families, says she has seen many myths about Ukrainians circulate online, including on Telegram.
“But what I’ve come to understand, it’s important to believe with all your heart in what you do and never give up. And only when it feels like even hope is lost, new opportunities open up,” she noted, also sharing that at the end of 2024, activists opened another branch based at the daycare center.
Others say that support within Ukrainian circles helps them cope with hostility online. Natalia Serhiienko, a Ukrainian entrepreneur who moved to Germany more than a decade ago, says she is concerned about online vitriol directed toward refugees, but she finds strength in her community.
“Ukrainian women are strong,” Natalia added. “They find resources within themselves and keep moving forward.”
The regulatory blind zones of Telegram
For European Union leaders, addressing false narratives on social media remains a challenge, as existing laws constrain their ability to act.
However, EU officials see another path – the Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires online platforms to remove illegal content quickly and to be more transparent about how they moderate and recommend information.
But Telegram is a challenging platform to regulate. Only platforms officially designated as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs) fall under direct supervision by the European Commission. Because Telegram claims fewer than 45 million monthly users in the EU, it avoids this classification.
“The DSA sets out due diligence obligations for all online platforms to ensure that everyone in the EU can trust their services, including when it comes to the dissemination of illegal content online,” Patricia Poropat, press officer for digital economy, research and innovation at the European Commission, told CCIJ.
The law, however, does not decide what constitutes illegal content – it relies on existing EU and national legislation to make that determination. But for VLOPs and VLOSEs, the commission can order access to the data and algorithms or send a request for information to verify platforms’ compliance.
Since February 2024, under the DSA, all hosting service providers are required to report suspected criminal activity that could endanger human life or safety to law enforcement. In Germany, this process is coordinated by the Federal Criminal Police Office. German authorities also collaborate with civil society groups and prosecutors to investigate online hate and extremist content.
However, the Federal Criminal Police Office told CCIJ it does not currently track statistical data specifically on Telegram groups or channels that have been flagged for anti-migrant content or hate speech.
Still, not everyone agreed with the appeal court’s decision to overturn the ban on Compact.
The nonprofit investigative newsroom Correctiv alleges that Compact regularly spreads antisemitic conspiracy theories, as well as stories promoting historical revisionism and Islamophobia.
Christoph Heubner, an executive vice president of the International Auschwitz Committee also expressed disappointment over the decision, calling the ruling “a revealing example of a democracy that still responds to the cunning of its opponents in an overly naïve and detached manner.”
“Holocaust survivors are witnessing the resurgence of right-wing extremist and antisemitic sentiments as well as the unabashed and brazen actions of far-right publicists, as a serious threat to democracy,” Heubner added.
Protestors demonstrate against the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine, in downtown Frankfurt am Main, 11 October 2024. The rally called for the handover of Russian President Vladimir Putin to the ICC (International Criminal Court) for trial and imprisonment. Photograph: Andre Pain / CCIJ
Marcel Fürstenau, senior political correspondent at Deutsche Welle, said that most in the media still accepted the decision because it was important for press freedom.
“The presiding judge emphasized that terms like ‘remigration’ and ‘Schuldkult’ (cult of guilt) fall under the protection of freedom of expression. This also applies to conspiracy theories and revisionist historical claims. At the same time, he stated that such expressions of opinion are not characteristic of Compact as a whole,” Fürstenau explained.
By the time of the court’s decision, former Interior Minister Faeser – who had imposed the ban – was no longer in office. Her successor, Alexander Dobrindt, has reacted cautiously.
“My ministry will carefully evaluate the ruling,” Dobrindt said. “Bans on organizations remain an applicable and viable instrument against extremist activities.”
In the meantime, the European Commission has taken some concrete steps. It has launched investigations into platforms such as TikTok and Meta for breaches of the DSA’s transparency and content-flagging obligations, and referred several member-states to the European Court of Justice for failing to implement the law’s coordinating framework.
These moves are intended to send a signal: The regulatory net is tightening.
The production of this investigation is supported by a grant from the IJ4EU fund. The International Press Institute (IPI), the European Journalism Centre (EJC) and any other partners in the IJ4EU fund are not responsible for the content published and any use made out of it.
CCIJ Editorial and Design Team
Editorial
Yaffa Fredrick
Carolyn Thompson
Steve Buist
Sonya Dymova
Research & Fact-checking
Betsy Ring
Copyediting
Juliane Schuett
Legal Advice
Data
Design & Visuals
© 2026 Veza – A publication site produced by the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism (CCIJ).