The founder of Telegram, Pavel Durov, stated that the criminal case opened against him in Russia for “complicity in terrorist activities” is related to the authorities’ efforts to limit freedom of speech and the right to privacy.
In a message published on his own channel, Durov wrote that Russian authorities “invent new pretexts every day to restrict access to Telegram”, accusing the state of trying to suppress freedom of speech.
What the Russian authorities say
On February 24, the publications Российская газета and Комсомольская правда, quoting materials from the FSB, reported that law enforcement agencies are investigating the actions of the Telegram founder under the article on “facilitating terrorist activity” (art. 205.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
According to these sources, in the context of the war, Telegram would have become “the main tool of the special services of NATO countries and the regime in Kiev”.
Also, the publications mentioned that Telegram would not have complied with the requests of Roskomnadzor to delete over 154 thousand channels and bots accused of spreading “calls for extremism” or “false information”.
Details, HERE