{"id":1265641,"date":"2025-07-20T17:57:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-20T14:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/under-the-kremlins-hood-russia-is-preparing-to-block-whatsapp-and-control-telegram\/"},"modified":"2025-07-20T17:57:56","modified_gmt":"2025-07-20T14:57:56","slug":"under-the-kremlins-hood-russia-is-preparing-to-block-whatsapp-and-control-telegram","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/under-the-kremlins-hood-russia-is-preparing-to-block-whatsapp-and-control-telegram\/","title":{"rendered":"Under the Kremlin&#8217;s Hood: Russia is Preparing to Block WhatsApp and Control Telegram"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Putin instructed the Russian government to develop mechanisms to restrict the use of messengers and software from &#8220;unfriendly countries&#8221; by September 1, 2025. WhatsApp may become the next victim of the ban, and VK&#8217;s new Max messenger is turning into a tool of total digital control.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p> This <a href=\"https:\/\/szru.gov.ua\/news-media\/news\/rosiya-namahaietsya-vstanovyty-kontrol-nad-mesendzheramy-i-inozemnym-prohramnym-zabezpechennyam\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was reported by<\/a> the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p> According to intelligence, Russia is stepping up steps towards digital isolation and increased surveillance of citizens, as evidenced by data released by the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p> According to Putin&#8217;s instructions, by September 1, the Russian government must develop restrictive measures against foreign software, primarily instant messengers from countries that the Kremlin considers &#8220;unfriendly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p> <strong>WhatsApp<\/strong> , owned by Meta, a company already designated as &#8220;extremist&#8221; in Russia, has been in the spotlight. Authorities are considering the messenger as a prime target for potential blocking.<\/p>\n<p> The situation with <strong>Telegram<\/strong> is no less complicated. Although it was created by Russian Pavel Durov, the messenger does not officially cooperate with the Kremlin and declares independence, which makes its position shaky &#8211; it could be banned at any moment.<\/p>\n<p> In parallel, the Kremlin is introducing its own digital control tool \u2014 the <strong>Max<\/strong> messenger, created by the VK company controlled by the special services.<\/p>\n<p> Max Features:<\/p>\n<ul><\/p>\n<li> Full access to the microphone, camera, geolocation, contacts and files on the device.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li> The inability to uninstall it using standard methods.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li> Using root access and system jar files, which has signs of spyware.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<li> All user activity is automatically transmitted to VK servers, which work closely with the FSB.<\/li>\n<p><\/ul>\n<p> The messenger <strong>is already mandatory for all civil servants<\/strong> , which turns it into another brick in the construction of total digital surveillance in the Russian Federation.<\/p>\n<p> According to Ukrainian intelligence, this is part of the Kremlin&#8217;s overall strategy \u2014 <strong>to isolate Russian citizens from alternative sources of information<\/strong> , create a closed information space, and ensure technical control over the population.<\/p>\n<p> It was previously reported that <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/mesendzher-telegram-stav-osnovnym-zasobom-rozpovsiudzhennia-rosiyskoi-propahandy-u-yevropi-zmi\/\">the Telegram app has become a key weapon for pro-Kremlin accounts to spread disinformation<\/a> aimed at undermining support for Ukraine. Recently, Russian intelligence officers have been using it to recruit petty criminals to carry out sabotage in European capitals.<\/p>\n<p> On the eve, March 12, the Center for Countering Disinformation (CDC) and the Cyber Department of the Security Service <a href=\"https:\/\/prm.ua\/tspd-ta-sbu-opryliudnyly-spysok-pravylnykh-dzherel-informatsii-u-top-5-telegram-kanaly-podruzhzhia-zelenskykh-yermaka-yoho-zastupnyka-ta-op\/\">published a list of safe channels<\/a> for obtaining information, and also revealed a network of tools for spreading hostile disinformation on Telegram.<\/p>\n<p> The Central Intelligence Agency also published <a href=\"https:\/\/cpd.gov.ua\/reports\/spysok-instrumentiv-poshyrennya-vorozhoyi-dezinformacziyi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">a list of channels for spreading hostile disinformation<\/a> , urging Ukrainians to report cases of identifying sources of Russian propaganda.<\/p>\n<p> Also follow <strong>\u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Facebook<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/prm_ua\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Twitter<\/a> , <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/+rtV4dxYu2_cyNjVi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Telegram<\/a> , and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/pryamiy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Instagram.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Putin instructed the Russian government to develop mechanisms to restrict the use of messengers and software from &#8220;unfriendly countries&#8221; by September 1, 2025. WhatsApp may become the next victim of the ban, and VK&#8217;s new Max messenger is turning into a tool of total digital control. This was reported by the Foreign Intelligence Service of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":1173818,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76870,76871,76872,76875],"class_list":["post-1265641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-other-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1265641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1173818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1265641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1265641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}