A day after being charged by Russian authorities with assisting terrorist activity and being placed on an international “wanted” list, the founder of the Telegram messaging app responded – with a meme.
Pavel Durov, a 41-year-old tech billionaire sometimes dubbed “Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg”, showed little sign of concern over the case launched by the Federal Security Service (FSB) last week.
Writing to his 11.3 million followers from his haven in Dubai, Durov said he was being branded a terrorist for refusing the Kremlin’s “demands for mass surveillance and censorship on Telegram” and posted a mocking image of Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov meeting the Afghan Taliban with the caption: “Don’t get confused.”
Shorts
The FSB announced its charges against Durov on 29 July, claiming Telegram had been used by Ukrainian intelligence agencies to “lure Russian citizens into sabotage and terrorist activities through deception and psychological manipulation”.
