The German government is reportedly making considerations to shut down the Telegram messaging app because anti-lockdown activists in the country are using it to organize rallies.

According to the German newspaper Die Welt, the German government intends to take action against the social messaging app Telegram because Germans opposed to the country’s harsh restrictions on movement and social activity over the pandemic are using the platform to facilitate resistance against the lockdowns.

“We cannot rule this out,” said German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who provided the response when asked if Telegram was being targeted for censorship.

“A shutdown would be grave and clearly a last resort. All other options must be exhausted first,” she said.

Speaking to the newspaper, Faeser said that it is unclear what legal action the government will need to take in order to silence the platform. The German government, she says, is currently consulting with the European Union to potentially regulate the platform.

As previously detailed by Rebel News, Germany has implemented some of the most severe pandemic restrictions. In December, the country introduced a fascist new policy towards the unvaccinated. The country announced its plan to ban the unvaccinated from almost everything.

“Telegram has been used as a hub of communication for the protest movement against the measures established to fight the CCP virus, including lockdowns, intermittent mask mandates, and restrictions for the unvaccinated,” The Epoch Times reported.

Telegram, which is currently restricted in China and Iran, experienced a massive surge in users last year after Facebook’s Whatsapp messaging program introduced a controversial privacy update that led to concerns about user privacy and anonymity on the messaging platform.

The move led many over to Telegram, where they are guaranteed anonymity. Its growing popularity has made the platform a target for authoritarians worldwide.

In addition to anonymity, Telegram represents independence from Big Tech social media companies. It features end-to-end encryption and ensures all messages sent on the platform remain as private as you want them to be.

Summit News reports that the U.S. lobbyist group The Coalition for a Safer Web filed a lawsuit against Apple in an attempt to force the company to remove Telegram from its app store, arguing that the free speech platform enables “extremists” to spread “hate speech.”