The instant messaging application WhatsApp, which has more than 100 million users in Russia, denounced this Thursday (12) the attempt by the country’s authorities to block it completely to make way for MAX, a similar Russian application.
“Today the Russian authorities tried to completely block WhatsApp to force people to migrate to the state-owned application that is not protected from surveillance,” said the messaging company, which belongs to the Meta conglomerate.
According to the network, “efforts to isolate more than 100 million users without the right to private and secure communication are a step backwards, which can only lead to the deterioration of people’s security in Russia.”
“We continue to do everything we can to keep users informed,” concluded WhatsApp.
On the eve of the demonstration, the Russian communications regulator, Roscomnadzor, excluded the domains of WhatsApp, YouTube and several independent media outlets working in Russia from the National DNS System registry, which implies, in practice, their total blocking.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian news agency Tass that if WhatsApp “starts dialogue with the Russian authorities (…) then there will be a possibility of reaching an agreement”.
“If the corporation insists on its uncompromising position and continues to show its complete unwillingness to be guided by Russian legislation, then there is no chance at all,” he said.
WhatsApp users, who have not been able to make calls for several months, as well as Telegram users, have been facing difficulties sending videos and photos since the end of November 2025.
The network speed limitation reached 80%, so that it was impossible to send messages on many cell phones, making it necessary to use the computer version (WhatsApp Web).
Roscomnadzor, which began gradually restricting the operation of WhatsApp in August last year, had already warned that “if the requirements of Russian legislation are not met by the browser, it will be completely blocked”.
The blocking of WhatsApp occurs almost simultaneously with the new restrictions that have been affecting Telegram for several days.
