WhatsApp may be blocked in Russia

Russian users of WhatsApp complain about the restrictions in operation of the messenger, with Meta being its parent company.

Megafon and Tele2 told the Russian Service of Report about a problem that arose among Russian users: "Mobile operators have nothing to do with the poor performance of the WhatsApp application. The messenger is being blocked. Now many complain about the poor performance of the application. In particular, the blocking began with failures in the work of users of Megafon operator."

Megafon also noted that WhatsApp will be blocked even if a VPN service is installed, as customers use Russian numbers in Russia.

According to representatives of the company, Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) blocks the work of WhatsApp, as it is a single platform of the Meta company, and IPhone users were blocked in the first place.

At the same time, Roskomnadzor denied rumors about restrictions on the work of WhatsApp in Russia.

"The operation of the WhatsApp messenger on the territory of Russia is not limited. Roskomnadzor does not link service failures with limitations of other Meta Platforms resources (Facebook and Instagram). Interruptions in the work of the messenger are observed, including in other countries, and resemble the situation with the failure of Meta services in the beginning of October 2021, for which the company itself assumed responsibility," the ministry's press service said.

Earlier in Russia social networks such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter were officially blocked. The request for blocking was put forward by the General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation.