{"id":15556,"date":"2026-02-12T19:15:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T19:15:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/trying-to-isolate-over-100-million-users-whatsapp-accuses-russia-of-trying-to-fully-block-service-to-push-state-messenger\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T19:15:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T19:15:52","slug":"trying-to-isolate-over-100-million-users-whatsapp-accuses-russia-of-trying-to-fully-block-service-to-push-state-messenger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/trying-to-isolate-over-100-million-users-whatsapp-accuses-russia-of-trying-to-fully-block-service-to-push-state-messenger\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Trying to isolate over 100 million users\u2019: WhatsApp accuses Russia of trying to fully block service to push state messenger"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-bullets-style\">\n<ul>\n<li>WhatsApp says it will try to keep users connected<\/li>\n<li>No immediate official Russian comment<\/li>\n<li>Moscow has warned WhatsApp over violations<\/li>\n<li>Russia promotes state-backed app MAX<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>MOSCOW, Feb 12 &mdash; US messenger app WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, accused authorities in Russia today of trying to fully block its service in order to drive Russians to a state-owned app, which it alleged was used for surveillance.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;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,&rdquo; WhatsApp said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We continue to do everything we can to keep users connected.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Some domain names associated with WhatsApp today disappeared from Russia&rsquo;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).<\/p>\n<p>Roskomnadzor, the state communications regulator, and the Kremlin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Restrictions on Whatsapp<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/12-weeks-jail-for-school-it-support-technician-who-took-upskirt-videos-of-teachers\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">&lt;div&gt;12 weeks' jail for school IT support technician who took upskirt videos of teachers&lt;\/div&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>Roskomnadzor first began restricting WhatsApp and other messenger services in August, making it impossible to complete phone &#8288;calls on them, accusing the foreign-owned platforms of failing &#8288;to share information with law enforcement in fraud and terrorism cases.<\/p>\n<p>It said &#8288;in December it was taking &#8288;new measures to gradually restrict &#8288;the app, which it accused of continuing to violate Russian law and of being a platform used &ldquo;to organise and carry out terrorist acts on the territory of the country, to recruit their perpetrators and to &#8288;commit fraud and other crimes.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Since then, many Russians have been able to use WhatsApp only in conjunction with a virtual private network and have switched to using rival messenger apps, though some of those &mdash; like Telegram &mdash; are also under pressure from the authorities for the same reasons.<\/p>\n<p>In a video published by state news agency TASS yesterday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there was a possibility of reaching &#8288;an agreement if Meta entered into dialogue with the Russian authorities and complied with the law.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If the corporation (Meta) sticks to an uncompromising position and, I would say, shows itself unready &#8288;to align with Russian legislation, then there is no chance,&rdquo; Peskov said.<\/p>\n<p>Russian authorities, who also block or &#8288;restrict social &#8288;media platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, are heavily pushing a state-backed messenger app called MAX, which critics say could be used to track users.<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/migrant-acquitted-in-first-trial-over-us-border-military-zones\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">Migrant acquitted in first trial over US border military zones<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>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. &mdash; Reuters<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><sub>&lsquo;Trying to isolate over 100 million users&rsquo;: WhatsApp accuses Russia of trying to fully block service to push state messenger<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WhatsApp says it will try to keep users connected No immediate official Russian comment Moscow has warned WhatsApp over violations Russia promotes state-backed app MAX MOSCOW, Feb 12 &mdash; US messenger app WhatsApp, owned by Meta Platforms, accused authorities in Russia today of trying to fully block its service in order to drive Russians to&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/trying-to-isolate-over-100-million-users-whatsapp-accuses-russia-of-trying-to-fully-block-service-to-push-state-messenger\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;\u2018Trying to isolate over 100 million users\u2019: WhatsApp accuses Russia of trying to fully block service to push state messenger&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15557,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}