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Bloomberg

US messenger app WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, accused authorities in Russia on Thursday of trying to fully block its service to drive Russians to a state-owned app, which it alleged was used for surveillance.
“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,” the world’s most popular messaging service said in a statement.
“We continue to do everything we can to keep users connected.”
The announcement came after Russia removed the technical internet records that connect platforms such as WhatsApp, YouTube and Facebook to their underlying IP addresses from the national system, according to local media reports.
These records act like an address book for the internet, telling users’ devices where to find an app or website and, without them, the services cannot be reached from inside Russia other than through a virtual private network.
Russia previously restricted video and voice calls on WhatsApp in August, slowing down other functions that now work only via virtual private network (VPN).
In a video published by state news agency TASS on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was ⁠a possibility of reaching an agreement if Meta entered into dialogue with the Russian authorities and complied with the law.
“If the ⁠corporation [Meta] sticks to an uncompromising position and, I would say, shows itself unready to align with Russian legislation, then there is no chance,” Peskov said.
The Kremlin has been pressing Russians to adopt a state-run “super-app” called Max, modelled after China’s WeChat. That is as the government has choked off access to foreign messenger services, over which it has less control, since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Critics of Max say it leaves users more vulnerable to surveillance by Russia’s security services.

In addition to messaging, Max hosts government services and enables document storage, banking and other public and commercial programmes. State employees from officials to teachers have been told to use the app, while property management companies are now only permitted to communicate with residents through the service.
Roskomnadzor, the state communications regulator, said in December it was taking new measures to gradually restrict ⁠WhatsApp, which it ⁠accused of continuing to violate Russian law and of being a platform used “to organise and carry out terrorist acts on the territory of the country, ‌to recruit their perpetrators and to commit fraud and other crimes.”
Telegram, another popular messaging app owned by Russian-born billionaire Pavel Durov, has also been hit by efforts to limit its access. Roskomnadzor, this week limited access to Telegram for failing to comply with Russian laws requiring personal data to be stored locally. Russia blocked voice and video calls via Telegram in August.
“Russia is restricting access to Telegram in an attempt to force its citizens to switch to a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship,” Durov said in a statement on his platform. The service is still available via VPN.
Roskomnadzor, and the Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request ‌for comment.
Other Western messengers and services including Snapchat, Apple’s FaceTime, Discord, Viber and Signal have all been blocked in Russia, opening up the market for Max.


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WhatsApp and Telegram sound the alarm as the Kremlin chokes off Western apps to promote MAX, a state-backed rival modeled after China’s WeChat


WhatsApp and Telegram sound the alarm as the Kremlin chokes off Western apps to promote MAX, a state-backed rival modeled after China’s WeChat.


Meta’s WhatsApp accuses Russia of blocking its service to force users to state ‘super-app’

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}WhatsApp and Telegram sound the alarm as the Kremlin chokes off Western apps to promote MAX, a state-backed rival modeled after China’s WeChat

WhatsApp and Telegram sound the alarm as the Kremlin chokes off Western apps to promote MAX, a state-backed rival modeled after China’s WeChat