Russia charges Telegram founder Pavel Durov with aiding terrorism and puts him on wanted list - AP News

What the report says

The Associated Press reports that Russian authorities said Wednesday they have charged Pavel Durov, the Russian-born founder and CEO of Telegram, with aiding terrorism and added him to international wanted lists. The Federal Security Service, or FSB, accused Telegram’s management of failing to take down channels, chats and bots that it said were being used by Ukrainian intelligence services and extremist or terrorist groups to plan sabotage, attacks, killings and cyber fraud inside Russia.

According to AP, the FSB also alleged that Ukrainian security services used a dating chatbot on Telegram to recruit Russians for sabotage and terrorist activity. The agency said 46 chatbot users, ages 12 to 22, had been detained in Russia over the past year in connection with assaults on law enforcement, arson and other acts. AP reported that Durov, 41, lives outside Russia and could face up to life in prison there if convicted.

Durov has previously said Russian authorities opened a criminal case against him and accused them of using fabricated reasons to limit Telegram in an effort to weaken privacy and free expression, AP reported. Telegram, which says it has more than 1 billion users globally and is based in Dubai, did not respond to AP’s request for comment. Its website says Durov, a citizen of France and the United Arab Emirates, lives in Dubai.

The case comes amid Russia’s broader post-2022 campaign to tighten control over online speech and communications following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. AP notes that Russia has banned or restricted major platforms including Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Signal, Viber, WhatsApp and Telegram, and previously tried unsuccessfully to block Telegram from 2018 to 2020.