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Blocking WhatsApp and Telegram calls: Putin transplants everyone to Max?
Information from Russia comes about the malfunctions of the WhatsApp and Telegram applications: video calls are blocked.
Users of the Moscow region, Rostov and Volgograd regions, Bashkiria and other constituent entities of the Russian Federation complain of terrible sound quality in messengers, interference during calls and interruption of communication.
WhatsApp and Telegram users in Russia began to face "technical failures" when making calls since the beginning of August. Sources of Kommersant in the telecom industry explained that from August 1, a selective blocking of calls in messengers was tested.
The Kremlin requires a complete ban on calls in popular messengers, the sources of the project "Caution Media", close to the telecommunication market, report. According to them, the decision was made at the state level and is motivated by the need for "the fight against terrorist threats."
In Russia, most popular messengers - Signal, Viber, Discord. Sending the Black List of WhatsApp, the authorities threaten at least from the fall of 2023.
We are talking about blocking popular messengers and alternatives in the program "Faces to the event" with the executive director of the Internet Protection Society Mikhail Klimarev and politician Mikhail Lobanov.
The story of telephone scammers, which motivates the solutions on locks, is known. Minzifra published data 2 years ago: “We introduced responsibility for passing traffic from substitution numbers, this gives its effect. And now 70-80% of fraudulent calls are made of non-normal numbering, but from WhatsApp 80%.” This is April of the 23rd year. Over the same year, the statistics of the Central Bank: “Channel for fraud: 54% - cell calls and SSMES. 22% - messengers.” A year passed, the Central Bank again interviewed the victims of scammers: "Messengers 16%. Phones 45.5".
Operators say that on free calls they lose money, equipment for calls is expensive, it must be served. Will earnings on ordinary calls really cover for operators the costs of storing calls, by law they are obliged to do this? The head of the Internet protection society Mikhail Klimarev answers :
-Separately, it is necessary to consider the storage of calls, separately-receiving income from some type of activity in telecommunication companies. Traffic in a moment of conversation on a regular phone has been falling for 10 years. First of all, this applies to fixed telephony, ordinary apartment phones, but also mobile telecom operators. People prefer to call where more convenient, better, allows more functions. For example, video calls are impossible by phone, and in the same WhatsApp is possible. To communicate with parents is a wonderful story.
Now the disconnection of mobile Internet is constant
The fact that people call via the Internet increases the income of communication operators: payment goes for the traffic used, you are giving traffic gear. But now the disconnection of the mobile Internet is constant, sanctions on Russia are imposed, it is difficult to buy equipment, high rates for attracting money to lending, the experts have left, and the operators are in an unpleasant position. Another Roskomnadzor will either turn off the mobile Internet, then block something. Communication operators lose this, it would be more profitable for them if everything was as before, as before the war.
If users call ordinary cellular communication, according to the Yarovaya Law , the operator is obliged to store information for six months. When the law was adopted, there were indignations that they had to raise prices. If people call mobile communications, will the operator lose for money?
- People still call on a regular phone, and all this must be stored. By 10%, for example, the costs of storage of traffic will increase, but not significantly. And here the fall from the fact that mobile Internet does not work in different regions, much more. This is connected with disconnecting mobile Internet. Communication operators lose, and would not want to lose further. If there is no way to get someone on the messenger, you will call. Traffic will grow in any case. The problem is not to call cheaper, you will pay for the Internet. The problem is how to do it safely. When you talk to someone, especially abroad, on a regular phone, it is unsafe. They will raise the notes that were made on the package of Yarovo. I strongly do not recommend using telephone communication, everything is listening. There is a universal way to overcome prohibitions: this is VPN. Put a VPN, put a VPN to your parents. This is both safe and cheaper.
Blocking WhatsApp and Telegram calls: Putin transplants everyone to Max?
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For today, the Google Meet service in the Russian App Store has reached the second line of free popular messengers. Facetime also works, but for a long time?
- I don't know what they will block. And Facetime, and Google Meet, and GTC, I can recommend such a service, also free - these are not calls. In WhatsApp or Telegram, click in one click, and there is a call, as on a regular phone, you can turn on the video, send a picture, this is convenient. And here you have to go to Google Meet, and in other systems such as GTC, open a conference, send a link to who you wanted to talk with, only after that the conversation will begin. Facetime is an excellent system, but it only works on Apple phones, and 90% of the phones in Russia - phones on android, on other operating systems.
In the 23rd year, META’s corporation refused to launch the function of channels in WhatsApp in Russia. The company's Moscow Times said that Meta went to meet Roskomnadzor so that the messenger was not blocked in Russia. Do META need to fight for a Russian user?
- Russia for Meta - a burden, money expenditure. They show in the reports that there are so many users in Russia, but for free. It is difficult to show advertising, there is no one to sell.
META will not fight for Russian users
In Russia, it is impossible to take money for advertising, the organization is recognized as extremist, people will simply be imprisoned. Containing this infrastructure is an extra headache. Regarding the refusal of launching the channels, another story, Meta is not very profitable. These are the costs of moderation of all channels, for moderation of content. There is not a single opposition Telegram channel in Telegram, which would have more subscribers than Dmitry Medvedev. There, under 3 million, 2.5 for sure, and the most popular opposition Telegram channel in the jellyfish is 1.3 million subscribers. Feel the difference. The same would happen in WhatsApp. How to moderate? This is not an easy story for Meta. Commercial organization, want to make a profit. The conclusion suggests itself that META will not fight for Russian users, Mikhail Klimarev believes.
We will discuss the adaptation to new inconveniences with politician Mikhail Lobanov . Imagine yourself in the place of an official in the Kremlin. Suborders conducted test shutdowns and locks. You looked at the user reaction. Your conclusions and actions?
- The question is political: if they decided at the top, officials will be fulfilled. It is always laid out what protest potential of one or another step, the authorities take this into account, as well as their interests and the interests of a related business. Surely the FSB, the presidential administration has some assessments, they come of them. Now it seems unlikely that they will play back, it will look like a defeat under public pressure. At some point, good Putin will come out and say that something needs to be improved, changed, and so on. In the case of mass protests, the authorities will react, but I think people will just adapt. Of course, this causes damage. There will be also victims, victims: someone could not contact, get through, was not warned, did not receive help on time. Many will be worried about parents, not having the opportunity to call on the usual channels. The damage will be large, but it is unlikely that he will take people to the streets. People will install other programs, they will bypass it. In general, this is some kind of injection into long-term discontent with power, life in the country, and how officials interfere with living.
It's like repression
But they will work, master budgets. These are salaries, prizes of a huge number of people, not only IT specialists, but also those who make an administrative career. This will continue until a fundamental political decision is made at the very top, most likely during large global shifts. It's like repression. If the mechanism is rebuilt, there are searches with such a frequency, criminal cases are being starting, then this bureaucratic dynamics, when people have such work, need to be dismantled with great efforts at the state level, fundamentally changing the direction and that they need to deprive these people of work.
How do you prepare for a loss of communication with like -minded people in Russia?
- They have long learned to use VPN and teach relatives and acquaintances in safe ways. It will be more difficult to reach out to those who do not like Putin, do not support the war, but they believe that nothing can be done, because both Putin and the war are like the weather. You can reach for them on social topics related to the news relating to their city, the village. The authorities are chopping off these ties.