Fighting terrorism in Russian. WhatsApp and Telegram with restrictions

Charge of sabotage and terrorism

Russian telecoms regulator Roskomover reported that action is being taken to combat crime to limit talks on abroad platforms. Russian authorities accuse WhatsApp and Telegram of "engaging citizens into sabotage and terrorist activities".

Reuter journalists confirmed that it was almost impossible to usage voice calls on the Telegram from August 11 and that conversations by WhatsApp were severely disrupted. The hotel announced that restrictions would be lifted if the platforms comply with Russian law.

Deputy Head of the Duma Technology Commission Anton Gorełkin stated that platforms would gotta open offices in Russia, comply with Russian regulations and cooperate with Roskomover and law enforcement.

Telegram and WhatApp defend themselves

The telegram rejected the charges, ensuring that it actively counters the usage of its platform for illegal activities, including incitement to force and fraud. WhatsApp in turn assured that he would take all possible steps so that the Russians could proceed to usage telephone calls despite the blockades introduced by the Moscow authorities.

As stated by the company liable for the WhatsApp communicator in its statement:

WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption and resists government attempts to violate citizens' rights to safe communication. Therefore, the authorities (in the Kremlin) effort to block WhatsApp over 100 million of our users in (Russia).

Circumvention will not be easy

According to the erstwhile manufacture information provided to Forbes magazine, Russian authorities began blocking calls to WhatsApp and Telegram at the request of the largest national telecom operators. This was confirmed by Anton Tkaczow, the first vice-president of the State Duma Information Policy Commission, explaining that the Russians are increasingly utilizing conventional telephone calls, resulting in financial losses for companies maintaining infrastructure.

A telecoms manufacture typical indicates that the usage of abroad SIM cards is improbable to effectively circumvent the ban. Even if the transmission of data by abroad operators is little limited, method threat management systems (TMTS) can filter specified traffic. Experts propose that possible circumventions could match methods of circumventing Chinese "Big Firewall", but their effectiveness will depend on the method details of the blockade.

On 10 and 11 August, users of WhatsApp and Telegram complained massively about the deterioration of the quality of connections, which, according to experts, may have been due to selective locking tests launched on 1 August.