Russia Considers Complete Ban on WhatsApp Application

WhatsApp messenger may be completely blocked within Russian territory due to non-compliance with existing legislative requirements. This was stated by Armen Gasparyan, a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Digital Development of the Russian Federation and the first deputy chair of the Public Chamber’s Education and Nurturing Committee.

According to him, if the leadership of Meta is interested in maintaining a presence in the Russian market, it must comply with the legislative norms of the Russian Federation. However, as Gasparyan noted, currently, there is no evidence of compliance with these requirements.

"This leads us to the conclusion that the messenger may be blocked based on legislative requirements,” he emphasized.

Earlier, Sergey Boyarsky, the chairman of the State Duma's Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies, and Communications, also stated that the prospects for WhatsApp's normal operation in Russia are rated very low.