Internet blockade | Russia blocks communication software Signal for violating national security

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Reuters quoted the Russian news agency Interfax as reporting last Friday (9th) that the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) said that the encrypted communication application Signal has been blocked in Russia because it did not comply with the country’s laws.

The report said authorities blocked Signal for violating Russian laws aimed at preventing communication apps from being used for terrorist and extremist purposes.

Klimarev, a Russian telecommunications expert and founder of the Telegram channel For Telecom, said that this is the first time that Russian authorities have attempted to block Signal. As early as 2018, Russian authorities blocked the widely used communication application Telegram, but at that time, because the action affected many third-party service agencies, they imposed regional blocking restrictions on Telegram.

Before the authorities announced the measures, hundreds of Signal users in Russia had reported that the app was malfunctioning. Data from the Internet Service Monitoring Website showed that users from Moscow and St. Petersburg submitted more than 1,500 complaints about Signal, but some users pointed out that Signal still works normally when used through a VPN connection or using the built-in censorship bypass mode.