Roskomnadzor has included WhatsApp in the register of organizers of information dissemination (ORI), as follows from the list on the agency’s website. The human rights project Roskomsvoboda (recognized as a foreign agent) drew attention to this.
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According to him, WhatsApp was included in the ARI registry on December 19, on the same day 11 more services were added to the list, including Skype, the encrypted communication and collaboration application Wire, the end-to-end encrypted messenger Element and the KakaoTalk instant messaging application.
Companies included in the list must store user data, information about their actions, correspondence, photographs, audio and video calls and transfer them to the FSB upon request, Roskomsvoboda noted. They added that the constant access of security forces to this information must be ensured with the help of special equipment, which the ORI must install at its own expense.
As of December 20, there were 456 services and companies in the ARI registry. Among them are Yandex Bank, Yandex Music, VKontakte and the Pikabu forum.
WhatsApp is the most popular messenger among Russians. According to Mediascope, 79% of the Russian population over 12 years old uses it monthly, and 67% of Russians access it daily.
Author:
Bogdan Muzychenko
Source: RB
I am a professional journalist and content creator with extensive experience writing for news websites. I currently work as an author at Gadget Onus, where I specialize in covering hot news topics. My written pieces have been published on some of the biggest media outlets around the world, including The Guardian and BBC News.
