- On 09 August 2024, Russian media reported that the Russian Federal telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor has blocked the encrypted messaging app Signal from use in the country. The official justification is that this is 'to prevent the use of the messenger for extremist or terrorist purposes.'
- Some commentators have suggested that the ban is intended to prevent the spread of information about the Ukrainian incursion into Kursk oblast, but this is highly unlikely.
- Signal is used by many independent Russian journalists and opposition activists to evade the Russian government's pervasive system of electronic monitoring, most notably the FSB's System of Operational Investigative Measures (SORM). In this context the restriction on Telegram is likely intended to increase the ability of the Russian authorities to monitor and restrict the communications of private citizens hostile to the regime.
- This comes at a time when the Russian Government is proscribing independent media organisations, and disrupting YouTube and the messaging service WhatsApp; measures intended to increase government control over access to media and information in Russia.
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If this information is confirmed, it would be the first time such a weapon had been used since Russia invaded in February 2022.
1d ago