According to the ministry, this step aims to “fight criminals” who use foreign instant messaging programs for fraud and illegal activities.
According to RKN, these platforms “have become the main services for deception, extortion and involvement of citizens in sabotage and terrorist activities.”
At the same time, as the ministry noted, the owners of instant messaging programs ignored the requirements to take measures to prevent such cases.
On October 21, users in several regions of southern Russia, including Rostov-on-Don, Sochi, Adygea, and Astrakhan, reported service failures. Telegram and WhatsApp were temporarily unavailable over Wi-Fi or experienced serious delays.
Telecom operators said the problems were not related to blocking on their end. In early August, RKN had already limited voice calls on these instant messengers for similar reasons.
Source: Ferra
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