Russian authorities have charged Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov with aiding terrorism and issued an international arrest warrant for him, accusing his messaging platform of failing to remove content allegedly used to coordinate attacks inside Russia.
The country's Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Wednesday that Telegram did not take down channels, group chats, and bots it claims were used by Ukrainian intelligence agencies as well as groups Russia labels as terrorist and extremist organizations to plan acts of sabotage, terrorism, mass killings, and cyber fraud.
Neither Durov nor Telegram immediately responded to the allegations. However, Telegram's official account on X posted a photo of Durov shortly after the announcement.
The charges come as Russia continues tightening restrictions on foreign messaging and social media platforms while promoting its state-backed MAX messaging service, which has been criticized by privacy advocates for lacking end-to-end encryption and allowing authorities access to user data upon request.
Durov, who was born in Russia but now holds French and Emirati citizenship, co-founded Telegram in 2013 after leaving the Russian social media company VKontakte. He has previously accused Russian authorities of pressuring him to hand over data belonging to Ukrainian pro-democracy activists, a request he said he refused.
Earlier this year, Durov said Russia had launched a criminal investigation against him as part of efforts to limit access to Telegram and suppress online privacy and freedom of expression.
He is also facing a separate legal investigation in France over allegations that Telegram failed to adequately combat criminal activity on its platform and did not cooperate sufficiently with law enforcement requests. Durov has denied any wrongdoing.
Telegram has long promoted itself as a platform committed to user privacy and minimal censorship, although critics argue that its approach has allowed extremist and criminal networks to operate on the service.
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