The State Duma said there is a high probability of blocking WhatsApp in Russia

Andrei Svintsov, deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, has said that there is a high probability that WhatsApp (owned by Meta, a recognized extremist company, its activities are banned in Russia) will be blocked in Russia. He told Izvestia on December 23.

"WhatsApp risks being blocked in the next two to three months, not later. This is primarily due to the fact that the terrorist threat from NATO countries in Russia has greatly increased. That is, NATO has moved from a conflict on the battle line to actually a terrorist fight with Russia. This needs to stop immediately. The management of these terrorist attacks takes place, among other things, using various means of communication," he said.

Earlier, WhatsApp was repeatedly fined for failing to meet the requirements for localization of Russian users' data. Now the messenger does not cooperate with the Russian authorities, which, according to Deputy Svintsov, significantly increases the risk of blocking, writes "Gazeta.Ru"

According to the deputy, major Russian companies have already prepared analogs of the messenger, which will enter the market in the coming months. He emphasized that the blocking could have been avoided if the company had started to comply with Russian laws.

On December 21, Roskomnadzor added the messenger WhatsApp and video call service Skype to the register of organizers of information dissemination on the Internet. In accordance with the legislation, the information dissemination organizer is obliged to store all data from the messenger on Russian territory.

Earlier, on December 13, Roskomnadzor restricted access to the messenger Viber on the territory of Russia. This measure was taken due to the company's representatives' non-compliance with the requirements of Russian legislation.