Russia charges Telegram founder Pavel Durov with facilitating terrorism
Telegram founder Pavel Durov has been charged by Russia for 'facilitating terrorism' through the use of the app, two years after being arrested in France over the moderation of the social media site.
Used by 950 million people, Telegram is one of the most popular social media sites in Russia and Ukraine, being a viable alternative to the likes of X and Facebook, which are banned in the country.
However, Russian-born founder Pavel Durov has been accused of allowing the app to be used by the Ukrainian secret services as a recruitment tool.
As of July 29, the FSB (Russia's domestic security service) has put an international arrest warrant out for Durov under the charges of facilitating terrorism.
Russia follows through on claims Telegram 'facilitated terrorism'
As part of the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Telegram - and by extension Pavel Durov - were accused by the Russian government of failing to moderate chatrooms, bots, and accounts that were created by alleged 'Ukrainian special services and by terrorist and extremist organisations'.
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The claims began in February, when the FSB claimed that the 'channels' were used to aid 'sabotage and terrorism, mass killings, and cyber-fraud operations.'
It isn't the first time that the 41-year-old and his social media sites have clashed with the Russian government, as he was previously forced to step away from the site dubbed as 'Russian Facebook' called VKontakte, and to leave the country, after he refused to grant the authorities access to data from accounts linked to Ukrainian pro-democracy activists in 2014.
Durov, who claims to have over 100 children, now lives in the United Arab Emirates, and previously claimed that the charges against him are 'fabricating new pretexts to restrict Russians' access to Telegram.'
The official Telegram account on X has been the only form of public response to today's charges, though, as it posted a picture of Durov raising a middle finger.
It's currently unclear as to whether the international countries will aid Russia's arrest warrant.
The moderation of Telegram has been scrutinised before, as the social media site champions its users' privacy, and steers clear of the normal data-sharing policies that other sites use.
As a result of this, Durov was arrested in France two years ago, after it was claimed that a 'failure to properly moderate' the app allowed criminal activity to breed. He was allowed to leave France months later, although the investigation continues.
As to what this means for Telegram, well, the site continues to function as usual with tens of millions of users each day.
The site is the most popular social media app in Ukraine and Russia, but is also used by people all around the world.
Durov recently clashed with other social media owners by tactfully calling out WhatsApp for its unmoderated encryption services, something that is also set to be adopted by Elon Musk with XChat.