Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber and Discord blocked in Russia began to be fined for lack of user identification

This may be related to the creation of a “national messenger”

In April and May, foreign messengers began to be fined en masse under the article on “failure to fulfill duties” (13.39 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) for lack of identification of users, as follows from published resolutions, which drew the attention of “Verstka”. All fines were imposed by the magistrate of precinct No. 422.

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Owners of 11 instant messengers have already received fines

In total, 11 messenger owners have received fines so far: Amazon Web Services (Wickr messenger) , Discord , imo , Viber , Threema , Conversations , Wire , WhatsApp , Session , Signal and Telegram . Threema was fined 1 million rubles, since the offense was repeated (part 2), the remaining companies were fined 800 thousand rubles.

As follows from the resolutions, Roskomnadzor sent demands to the owners of instant messengers, referring to Federal Law No. 149 “On Information,” according to which instant messengers are required to identify users.

In addition, Roskomnadzor contacted telecom operators with requests regarding whether the owners of instant messengers contacted them to identify users. In some cases, the regulator received a response that “no such appeals were received to the specified telecom operators.”

The Viber messenger was the first to receive a fine on April 30. Telegram received a similar punishment on May 20. As stated in the resolution, the company did not identify users' data by their phone number. To do this, the company must send requests to the telecom operator, which, in turn, checks whether this number is in its operator database and whether it is actually registered to this user.

Messengers are required to save information about users and provide it at the request of the FSB

As Roskomsvoboda explained to Vorstka, data identification means saving information about users, all their actions and interactions and transferring it at the first request of the FSB, saving all correspondence and calls (if provided for by the functionality of the messenger), videos and photos, as well as transferring encryption keys.

According to the Roskomsvoboda lawyer, it is most likely that such increased activity in the courts is associated with the creation of the “national messenger” MAX, the law on which was adopted by the State Duma on June 10. Perhaps in this way the state gives a signal to all foreign messengers that they are not welcome on the Russian market, the expert believes.

“Also, perhaps this is the basis for creating obstacles to the possible return (unblocking) of foreign messengers. Sooner or later, conditions may be created for global messengers to enter the Russian market again, but the million-dollar fines hanging on them, as additional costs, will complicate this expansion,” Roskomsvoboda reported.

In addition, according to the expert, budget replenishment can be considered the least likely motive. However, such a scenario could only be realized on the initiative of lower officials, since in most cases fines are not actually collected.

Authorities began restricting the operation of popular Internet platforms last year.

Previously, “Verstka” reported that back in July 2024, authorities began to slow down YouTube , citing problems with the operation of Google equipment. At the same time, preparations began to replace YouTube with the VK Video project . It also became known that VK plans to create a new “ national messenger ” based on TamTam to replace WhatsApp. In October, Roskomnadzor blocked Discord , which was often used to bypass YouTube blocks. At the same time, the Federation Council admitted that WhatsApp could be blocked .

Illustration: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

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