Roskomnadzor, the Russian Internet regulatory agency, removed WhatsApp from the operational online directory on Wednesday for instant communications under Meta. On Wednesday afternoon local time, millions of Russian users responded that they could not access the WhatsApp, an application with at least 100 million users in Russia.
Roskomnadzor essentially wiped whatsApp off the Internet. Apart from this, access to the service is almost impossible without a complex alternative. The embargo is even more complete than previous attempts to reduce the speed of the application, demonstrating the intention of the Russian authorities to cut off the application for a long term or even for a permanent period, and to continue to promote the determination of users to switch to “Max for national communications”. “The Russian government today is trying to block whatsApp in its entirety in order to drive users to a state-owned surveillance application. Attempts to isolate more than 100 million users from privacy and security of communications are a step backwards and will only reduce the level of security of the Russian population.” According to the Financial Times, the Russian government has removed the “extremism” labeled Meta’s Facebook and Instagram from the list, which users can access only via a virtual network. According to Russian Internet analysts, the speed of YouTube visits has also decreased significantly, but it is not clear whether it has also been completely removed from the online directory.
For a long time, the Russian Government has been directing the population towards a national socialization application called Max, which integrates communications and government services without any encryption technology. Max belongs to Vkontakte, Russia’s largest Internet company, and since last year’s official designation as a “State-level communications application”, user usage has increased significantly. It is worth mentioning that earlier this week Russia also intensified its interference with Telegram. Telegram is more popular in Russia than WhatsApp, especially in the area of news and entertainment consumption. The founder of Telegram, born in Russia, Pavel Durov, condemned the new restrictions and stated that “the limitation of citizens’ right to free choice is not the right answer”. He stressed that “No matter how much pressure, Telegram always defends freedom of expression and privacy”. Since last summer, Russia’s access to the WhatsApp and Telegram has been continuously weakened by “partial restrictions”, rendering voice calls inoperable. According to Russian media reports, by December last year the authorities had reduced the speed of the WhatsApp network by 70 to 80 per cent.
