Russia removes WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram from a Roskomnadzor-run online directory, essentially blocking them in the country, unless users rely on a VPN
Financial Times
Context & Ripple Effects
Russia’s access controls have tightened in stages: Facebook was blocked by Roskomnadzor in 2022, while WhatsApp was initially treated differently from Meta’s social platforms. The removal of all three services from the regulator-run directory closes that earlier distinction.
WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram users in Russia face loss of ordinary access and must rely on VPNs where they remain usable; Meta loses a direct route to users in the country.
Messaging, creator, and business activity that depended on Meta services must shift toward VPN-mediated access or available domestic platforms, fragmenting audiences and communications channels.
Local app providers gain from reduced foreign competition, while VPN services become a more important—though policy-exposed—access layer for users seeking blocked services.
Third-order effects
If this directory mechanism is used repeatedly, internet access in Russia becomes less a question of a platform’s technical reach and more a question of regulatory inclusion, increasing the leverage of domestic substitutes.
The pattern points to a more segmented national internet in which cross-border platforms face pressure to comply with local controls or accept sharply constrained distribution.
The trend: This is part of the broader shift toward state-directed digital sovereignty, where regulators use access controls to favor domestic communications infrastructure over foreign platforms.
Today the Russian government attempted to fully block WhatsApp in an effort to drive people to a state-owned surveillance app. Trying to isolate over 100 million users from private and secure communication is a backwards step and can only lead to less safety for people in Russia.
3/ Russia is very clearly building a digital apparatus of mass control. The history of autocrats trying to replace popular and private foreign apps with homegrown surveillance tools is not new. But Russia is the biggest experiment yet. By @MehulAtLarge & @NastyaStognei
NEW: Russia's digital iron curtain is slamming shut. They just began a @WhatsApp block among other services. Behind the curtain? Russians are being pushed to use the Max app, which has zero encryption, connects with gov services & looks exactly like a mass surveillance tool. [ima…
@MehulAtLarge @NastyaStognei 4/ Russia has more than 100 million @whatsapp users despite the government shenanigans And it seems far more likely that, instead of displacing all of them to the Max app, Russia is about to push an unprecedented volume of traffic over VPNs. By @markc…
[...] The data of the sites have been removed from the NSDII DNS service. This means that Russian users cannot access the platforms 📱📱 Previously, they did the same with YouTube, WhatsApp. And also slowed down access to Telegram When trying to access the sites of WhatsApp, Face…
2/ Russia has been degrading alternatives to the Max app for a while... all while pushing the app in various ways. Like forcing all new phones sold in RU to have it pre-installed. This week marks the biggest yet push to centralize a whole country into one surveillance mega-app. […
⚠️ The #Kremlin's blocking #Telegram & WhatsApp across Russia—cutting soldiers off from coordinating on the frontline, ruining warning systems for Belgorod, just to hide the truth of their collapsing economy. Even Putin's supporters are outraged! #RussiaIsCollapsing [video]
A post American internet is coming. For better and worse. We'll get European versions of Amazon, and more high street bookshops. While state surveillance, by countries which aren't the US, hit China levels.
@WhatsApp Comply with Russian laws and you'll have access to the Russian market. Meta has no representative office in Russia, as it is legally required to, nor has it paid fines levied on it for refusing to remove unlawful content. Don't comply - and you won't have Russian access…
“Millions of Russians were abruptly cut off from the encrypted WhatsApp messaging service on Wednesday afternoon after months of efforts to force them on to a ‘national messenger’ built for surveillance.”