Viber blocked in Russia: What is known
Photo: Viber blocked in Russia (makeuseof.com)
The Roskomnadzor (Russian federal executive agency responsible for monitoring, controlling and censoring Russian mass media) has announced the blocking of Viber. The app will not work across the entire territory of the Russian Federation starting today, according to Russian media.
Roskomnadzor explained that the Viber app allegedly violates necessary laws "to prevent threats of using the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes, recruiting citizens for such actions, drug trafficking, as well as for hosting illegal content."
State Duma deputy Anton Nemkin also noted that Viber has supposedly not paid the fines that were imposed on it. Over the past two years, the total amount of these fines has exceeded 1.8 million rubles (17 thousand dollars).
Russia blocks foreign apps
Earlier this fall, the Russian authorities banned Discord, an American messaging and voice call platform.
The platform, which was popular among gamers, was increasingly used for communication purposes.
Shortly before that, the Kremlin blocked access to YouTube for Russian users.
In response, Google completely disabled monetization in Russia. The Google AdSense contextual advertising service ceased all operations on the Russian internet, and all user accounts from Russia were deactivated.
However, the confrontation between Russia and Google did not end there. It was recently revealed that Russia fined Google $2 decillion.
This alleged fine is for blocking pro-Russian channels on YouTube.
