The Russian Federation continues to block popular platforms from Western companies. After blocking the children’s game Roblox, the FaceTime video calling app and Snapchat messenger have been restricted.
The Russian Federation continues to block popular platforms from Western companies. After blocking the children’s game Roblox, the FaceTime video calling app and Snapchat messenger have been restricted.
The state communications regulator Roskomnadzor announced the blocking of the disappearing message messenger Snapchat. This was preceded by the announcement of restrictions on access to video and voice calls in Apple’s FaceTime service.
Roskomnadzor said that Snapchat was used «to organize and carry out terrorist activities in the country,» as well as fraud and other crimes. It is noted that the service had more than 7 million users in Russia.
With similar reasoning, the regulator announced the blocking of Apple’s FaceTime in Russia. Russian users reported problems with the application in early autumn.
In addition, just this week, Russian authorities blocked access to the American gaming platform for children, Roblox, allegedly for distributing extremist materials and «LGBT propaganda.»
Earlier, Roskomnadzor also said that it could completely block the WhatsApp messenger, which has almost 100 million users in the Russian Federation. The regulator indicated that the service violates data localization laws and is often used for «fraud» and «terrorism.»
