Russian Government Blocks WhatsApp After Telegram, Steering Users to State-Owned App

Russia pushes state-led "MAX" messenger
Unencrypted service enables user surveillance
Throttling since last year fuels discontent in Russia

On the 11th (local time), the Russian government completely blocked the domestic service of WhatsApp, the messenger service of U.S. company Meta.

According to foreign media reports, on that day the Russian authorities, specifically the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor), removed WhatsApp from the online directory.

This online directory is a list of online services authorized by the Russian authorities. As a result, WhatsApp will effectively disappear from the Russian internet. Going forward, it will be virtually impossible to access WhatsApp services in Russia without taking complex circumvention measures.

The Russian authorities are encouraging the use of the state-led messenger service "MAX" instead of WhatsApp. MAX is an application (app) developed and launched by Russia in June last year, and unlike WhatsApp, it is not encrypted. Accordingly, critics point out that it enables surveillance and tracking of users.

On the same day, WhatsApp stated, "The Russian government has attempted to completely block WhatsApp in order to push people toward a state-owned surveillance app," adding, "Any attempt to cut more than 100 million people off from private and secure communication is a step backward and can only weaken the security of people in Russia."

Previously, in November last year, the Russian authorities had warned that they could completely block WhatsApp. One month later, in December of the same year, it was reported that WhatsApp’s speed had slowed by 70% to 80%. Russia implemented throttling measures on WhatsApp and other foreign messenger platforms on the grounds that they refused to share information with investigative agencies. In addition, since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has been restricting social networking services (SNS) provided by U.S. companies, such as Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, as well as YouTube and X (formerly Twitter).

On the 10th, Russia also tightened restrictions on the messenger Telegram. As a result, Telegram’s speed has reportedly decreased. Telegram is considered to have greater influence than WhatsApp in Russia in terms of news and entertainment. Consequently, even within Russia, voices of discontent are being raised over the latest restrictions.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.