US messenger app WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, has been completely blocked in Russia for failing to comply with local law, the Kremlin said yesterday, suggesting Russians turn to a state-backed “national messenger” instead.
“Due to Meta’s unwillingness to comply with Russian law, such a decision was indeed made and implemented,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, proposing that Russians 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,” said Peskov.
The move against WhatsApp is the culmination of six months of pressure on the US company and reflects a wider push by the Russian authorities at a time of war to create and control a “sovereign” communications infrastructure in which foreign-owned tech companies submit to local laws or disappear.
Meta Russia had already been designated as an extremist organisation, and WhatsApp had complained about what it said was an attempt to fully block its service. “Today the Russian government attempted to fully block WhatsApp in an effort to drive people to a state-owned surveillance app,” it said in a statement.
“Trying to isolate over 100 million users from private and secure communication is a backwards step and can only lead to less safety for people in Russia.”
Some domain names associated with WhatsApp disappeared from Russia’s national register of domain names, meaning that devices inside Russia stopped receiving its IP addresses from the app and that it could be accessed only by using a virtual private network (VPN).
Russian authorities, who also block or restrict social media platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, have been heavily pushing MAX, which critics say could be used to track users.
The authorities have dismissed those accusations as false and say MAX, which integrates various government-related services into it, is designed to simplify and improve the everyday lives of citizens.
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