WhatsApp, the messaging app owned by social media big Meta, has accused Russia of making an attempt to dam entry for tens of millions of its customers in an try and push them in the direction of its state-owned different.
“Attempting to isolate over 100 million customers from personal and safe communication is a backward step and may solely result in much less security for folks in Russia. We proceed to do every thing we will to maintain customers linked,” the corporate stated in an X publish on Wednesday.
Moscow’s state-backed platform Max was launched in March 2025 by Russian tech agency VK as a home different to foreign-owned companies like WhatsApp and Telegram.
The federal government has since been closely selling it, making it obligatory to be pre‑put in on all smartphones offered within the nation beginning Sept. 1.
website positioning agency Backlinko estimates Russia has the fourth-largest energetic month-to-month WhatsApp consumer base, with 72 million folks, behind Indonesia, Brazil and India.
Russian media experiences declare WhatsApp is inaccessible
Gazeta.ru, a Russian on-line information web site based mostly in Moscow, reported Wednesday that WhatsApp’s area had been utterly blocked and was inaccessible and not using a VPN or comparable workaround.
The outlet additionally reported, citing state-owned information company TASS, that presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov stated unblocking WhatsApp in Russia would require the messaging service to comply with Russian legal guidelines and present a willingness to barter.
Final yr, Moscow started limiting some calls on WhatsApp and Telegram, accusing the platforms of failing to share data with regulation enforcement and failing to retailer the information of Russian customers within the nation.
In January, Andrey Svintsov, a deputy of the State Duma, the decrease home of Russia’s nationwide legislature, informed TASS that the nation’s telecom regulator would undertake measures to utterly block WhatsApp by the top of 2026.
Different international locations limiting messaging companies
Different international locations have reportedly used communication restrictions in instances of battle.
In December, Ugandan politician and opposition chief Bobi Wine inspired his supporters to obtain Jack Dorsey’s decentralized peer-to-peer messaging service Bitchat and accused the federal government of planning to chop communications within the lead-up to the election.
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In the meantime, in September, the African island nation of Madagascar skilled a spike in Bitchat downloads amid protests and communication disruptions, following an identical uptick throughout unrest in Nepal and Indonesia earlier that very same month.
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