STORY: The Kremlin said on Thursday that it had completely blocked WhatsApp in Russia, cutting off the country's most popular messaging app for millions of users.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the U.S. messenger app, which is owned by Meta Platforms, was unwilling to comply with Russian law ... and suggested that Russians use state-owned messenger app MAX.
Critics say MAX is a surveillance tool. Russian authorities deny that.
The move against WhatsApp is the culmination of six months of pressure on Meta, which had already been designated as an extremist organization inside Russia.
It reflects a wider push by the Kremlin to create and control a "sovereign" communications infrastructure in which foreign-owned tech companies submit to local laws or disappear.
In a statement, Meta said it had 100 million users in the country and called it a "backwards step" that would "lead to less safety for people in Russia."
In Moscow, this resident said they were already switching to MAX.
Others expressed frustration.
"I have a downright negative attitude toward this," this woman said, calling it a violation of constitutional rights.
Some domain names associated with WhatsApp disappeared from Russia's national register.
That meant devices inside Russia could only access WhatsApp by using a virtual private network, or VPN.
The state communications regulator did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The move comes just days after Russia said it would impose further restrictions on the messaging app Telegram.
Voice and video calls have been limited since August. And, earlier in the week, users reported the service as being noticeably slower.
