Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, has commented on his inclusion in Russia's list of terrorists and extremists, reports infohub.kz.
In a post on X, Durov said the decision stems from his refusal to comply with demands for mass surveillance and censorship on Telegram. "Russia has labeled me a 'terrorist' for refusing to comply with its demands for mass surveillance and censorship on Telegram," he wrote.
He also noted that under Russian law, he is prohibited from publishing information online. "Under Russian law, I am banned from 'publishing information on the internet'," his post said.
Durov concluded with an ironic remark about Russian authorities: "Russian officials clearly are confused about who can ban whom on the internet."
Today, July 30, the founder of the popular Telegram messenger was added to the list of terrorists and extremists maintained by the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring). The day before, it became known that he had been charged in Russia with facilitating terrorism.
Shortly after, Telegram's official X account posted an archive photo of Durov sitting at a table eating, showing his middle finger to the camera. The photo had no caption but garnered many comments.
Recall that Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) accused the messenger's administration of failing to delete channels, chats, and bots that were "actively used by Ukrainian special services to prepare terrorist attacks and mass killings in Russia."