Russia has introduced a new messenger, «Point of Contact,» designed specifically for communicating with prisoners. The program allows you to exchange text, media files, and even purchase paid subscriptions to entertainment content, but each message will undergo a mandatory censorship check that takes up to three business days.
Russia has introduced a new messenger, «Point of Contact,» designed specifically for communicating with prisoners. The program allows you to exchange text, media files, and even purchase paid subscriptions to entertainment content, but each message will undergo a mandatory censorship check that takes up to three business days.
According to Russian media, an advertisement for the new service has appeared on the website of the prison order system ZT. The official launch of the platform is accompanied by promises to soon release applications for Android and iOS, but for now the program is being distributed in a rather specific way.
The service is fully paid, although its tariffs are somewhat lower than standard state analogues. Thus, a short message of up to 200 characters will cost more than 3 rubles (1.7 UAH), and a full letter of up to 2,500 characters — 35 rubles (20 UAH). In addition, users are offered a subscription to entertainment content (news, humor, sports) for 99 rubles (57 UAH), although its validity period is not specified. You can also send photos, voice messages and official appeals to the administration of institutions through the application.
«Point of Contact» is available for download only as an APK file for Android directly from the developers' website. However, Russian human rights activists have questions about the technical implementation: the instructions for the service do not clearly explain how prisoners themselves gain access to smartphones to register and use the network.
