Overview
- WhatsApp said Russian authorities attempted a complete block on February 11 and warned it would undermine private, secure communication for over 100 million users in the country.
- The company characterized the effort as a push to migrate people to MAX, a state-backed messenger it says lacks protections against surveillance.
- WhatsApp said it is working to keep users in Russia connected despite the reported attempt to cut access.
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the decision was taken because WhatsApp did not comply with Russian law and described MAX as an available alternative.
- A monitoring project reported that WhatsApp and a dozen other major sites were removed from Russia’s National Domain Name System, restricting access without VPN tools.