WhatsApp, one of the world’s most popular messaging services, is facing a blanket ban in Russia as the Kremlin moves to drive adoption of a new, state-sponsored app.
More than 100 million Russian users of WhatsApp are facing isolation in the country, though the company is doing everything to keep them connected, WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Today the Russian government attempted to fully block WhatsApp in an effort to drive people to a state-owned surveillance app,” WhatsApp said on the social media platform X.
The Russian government’s efforts to isolate WhatsApp users from “private and secure communication is a backwards step and can only lead to less safety for people in Russia”, the company added. “We continue to do everything we can to keep users connected.”
The WhatApp announcement follows Russia’s removal of technical internet records that connect platforms such as WhatsApp, YouTube and Facebook to their underlying IP addresses from the national system, Bloomberg reported, quoting local media reports.
“Due to Meta's unwillingness to comply with Russian law, such a decision was indeed made and implemented,” Reuters cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as telling reporters. He suggested that Russians should switch to Max, Russia's state-owned messenger.
“Max is an accessible alternative, a developing messenger, a national messenger, and it is available on the market for citizens as an alternative,” Mr Peskov said. Critics of the Russian regime have labelled Max a surveillance tool, a claim the Russian authorities say is false.
The US-based WhatsApp, along with messaging apps such as Telegram, have been facing pressure from Russian authorities for months. The blanket ban on WhatsApp follows the restriction of video and voice calls on WhatsApp in August, and the slowing down of other functions that now work only via VPN, Bloomberg reported.
Russia’s communications regulator, which also restricts social media platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube in the country, in December said it was taking new measures to gradually restrict WhatsApp.
In the past Russia has accused WhatsApp of continuing to violate the country’s laws and being a tool “to organise and carry out terrorist acts on the territory of the country, to recruit their perpetrators and to commit fraud and other crimes”.
