Telegram founder Pavel Durov said on Thursday that Russia’s decision to add him to its list of terrorists and extremists was retaliation for his refusal to comply with government demands for mass surveillance and censorship on the messaging platform.
“Russia has recognized me as a ‘terrorist’ for refusing to comply with its demands for mass surveillance and censorship in Telegram,” Durov wrote in a post on the platform.
“Under Russian law, I am now prohibited from ‘disseminating information on the internet.’ Russian officials have apparently become confused about who can prohibit whom from using the internet,” he added.
Earlier on Thursday, Russia’s financial monitoring agency, Rosfinmonitoring, placed Durov on its register of terrorists and extremists after authorities charged him with aiding terrorist activities and initiated procedures to place him on an international wanted list.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has accused Telegram of failing to remove channels, group chats and bots allegedly used by Ukrainian intelligence services and extremist organisations to coordinate attacks and other criminal activities inside Russia.
The Russian authorities have not publicly responded to Durov’s latest remarks.