Disference Telegram and WhatsApp: Beginning

This material (information) is produced, distributed and (or) sent by a foreign agent Roskomsvobod or concerns

Activities of a foreign agent "Roskomsvoboda". 18+

Recently, users in Russia have encountered interruptions in the work of popular messengers. Roskomnadzor explained that voice calls were limited "in order to counteract criminals." In our material - the chronology of events and the opinions of experts.

In the first half of August of this year, users in Russia began to massively complain about problems with voice challenges and video calls in Telegram and WhatsApp (belongs to META, which was recognized as an “extremist organization” and is prohibited in the Russian Federation). According to a number of insidies, in May, representatives of the Big Four (MTS, Megafon, Beeline and Tele2) made a proposal to block the calls of messengers, which would allow them to return traffic to ordinary voice challenges. The same thing was announced by them in June-July at meetings from the Minzifra.

The other day, Roskomnadzor said that "measures are being taken in the Russian Federation to partially limit calls to Telegram and WhatsApp to counteract criminals." In addition, the press release was quite a loud statement that:

“According to law enforcement agencies and numerous appeals of citizens , foreign messengers Telegram and WhatsApp have become the main voice services used to deceive and extort money, involvement in the sabotage and terrorist activities of Russian citizens. Repeatedly the requirements for the adoption of counteraction to the owners of messengers are ignored. "

The RKN also noted that “the fight against the calls of criminals is conducted sequentially,” and she did not touch on another functionality of messengers.

In early August, representatives of the cyber police of the Russian Federation made a similar statement. According to them, “a significant number of crimes are committed using popular messengers and social networks”, where Telegram and WhatsApp are a kind of “leaders”.

Paradoxically, these data refute the research of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. Last year, as a result of the survey, “Portrait of the victim from cyber abdomers in 2024,” it turned out - the most important way to lure money from gullible citizens remained calls by phone (45.6%). Messengers took only the second place - 15%.

Nevertheless, following Roskomnadzor, a statement on the blocking of voice challenges in order to combat scammers made the mincifers.

The ministry noted that Telegram and WhatsApp, despite repeated warnings on the part of the authorities, refuse to comply with the requirements of Russian legislation. In particular, companies do not provide information on the requests of law enforcement agencies for mass cases of fraud and facts of planning and committing terrorist acts in Russia. “At the same time, all the requirements for the provision of such information at the request of foreign special services are executed promptly,” the ministry said. They clarified that the restoration of calls is possible only when the requirements of Russian legislation are fulfilling the requirements of Russian law.

“At the same time, the news about the destructive role of WhatsApp and Telegram went,” said journalist Alexander Plyushchev .

“The federal media claim that operators do not know anything about their request to block calls in messengers,” jokes the creator of Esher II, Philip Kulin .

Problems with correspondence in Telegram and WhatsApp should not arise, say IKS-Consulting analyst Maxim Savvatin and the head of Content Review Sergey Polovnikov . Roskomnadzor also said that there would be no other restrictions.

Partial blocking will manifest itself as gurgling, hissing, interference during the conversation, which will make the use of this type of communication uncomfortable, the general director of Telecom Daily Denis Kuskov told Vedomosti.

Under each type of traffic, its own canal width is formed, Kuskov says. The audio call of the channel width is small, but for a certain time there is a uniform traffic consumption in both directions - from the calling subscriber to the host and vice versa, he says. On this basis, the call traffic is easy to determine and distinguish, for example, from video content traffic, the expert explains.

It will be inconvenient for citizens due to the restrictions on communication, since WhatsApp and Telegram use about 75% and 60% of the population, respectively, sociologist Denis Volkov clarifies.

Roskomnadzor limited calls to Telegram and WhatsApp due to the growth of fraud: the criminals went to messengers after the introduction of Antiphrod, the State Duma deputy Anton Gorelkin writes to Telegram. Minzifra claims that services do not cooperate with Russian law enforcement officers, but interact with foreign ones. The resumption of calls is possible only with “landing” - the opening of legal entities and compliance with the laws of the Russian Federation. “For WhatsApp, this is complicated by META status,” the parliamentarian believes.

Telegram made a statement, refuting the accusations of indulgence to criminals. The company said that “they are actively fighting harmful content, fraud, calls for sabotage and violence” and daily delete “millions” of such materials.

In addition, the service for the first time introduced “detailed confidentiality settings for calls, so each TELEGRAM user can determine who to receive calls from, or completely turn off the calls.”

WhatsApp later reacted to blocking calls. The messenger is confidential, protected by through encryption and “opposes the attempts of governments to violate people's right to safe communication,” the statement said. It is with this, as they read in the service that the decision of the Russian authorities is connected to limit access to the functions of the messenger. The company promised to do everything possible so that users around the world, including in Russia, were accessible to communication protected by through encryption.

According to WhatsApp, in Russia it has more than 100 million users. According to the MediaScope research company, the monthly coverage of WhatsApp from an audience older than 12 years old according to the results of July 2025 was 96.2 million, Telegram - 89.8 million.

It is quite expected to many users and experts associated what was happening with the attempt to “drag” Russians with the venues not controlled by the authorities of the Max's domestic messenger, especially against the backdrop of a wide advertising promotion, which has already generated many memes.

The ban on calls in Telegram and WhatsApp looks rude and ridiculous, especially against the backdrop of MAX promotion, writes the director of the Information Culture ANO Ivan Belytin :

“This messenger is not suitable for international communication - authorization is available only by numbers of the Russian Federation and Belarus. People will simply switch to Zoom, Meet, Jitsi and other services. Max and operators will hate, and the damage from the ban clearly exceeds any hypothetical benefits. ”

Zoom and Meet mentioned in their list of temporary measures or a complete replacement, by the way, many experts. In addition, the list contains Signal and Facetime. True, the latter has the main problem - it is available only for Apple technology users.

His advice to Google Talk and Zoom for calls abroad gave , including the ex-adviser of Putin on the Internet, German Klimenko .

Our users informed us that between Russian cities the connection is very bad. At the same time, several of them said that when calling on Telegram, special problems were not recorded abroad. Residents of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Chelyabinsk, Barnaul, Belgorod complained that calls both within the country and abroad on WhatsApp almost do not work: it gurgles, you can hear separate words, and that’s all. “Facetime works fine,” they write. Some note that there are problems only on a mobile Internet, and everything works through Wi-Fi.

The ban on vocal calls through foreign messengers WhatsApp and Telegram will not bring benefits to society and will easily cost vpn. This was announced by the deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy Anton Tkachev .

“Probably, technically, this is possible to do [block the connection], but I do not assume how. From the point of view of blocking foreign services - we will again encounter VPN. I am sure that you can bypass this blocking too. And some plus for society will definitely not bring, ”Tkachev said.

Meanwhile, communication operators recorded an increase of up to 25% of voice traffic against the background of blocking calls in Telegram and WhatsApp. T-Mobail subscribers spoke on the telephone network on August 11-12 25% more minutes than a week earlier, said the director of the operator’s business, Anton Nikolsky-Volkonsky. The number of users using voice traffic also increased by 5%, he said. MTS, Megafon, Vimpelcom, Sbermobail and Gazprombank Mobail did not provide data.

Telecomdaily CEO Denis Kuskov estimates the share of subscribers who switched to a fixed connection due to locks at 25%. He called the indicator the limit, fixed at the moment. According to him, most users choose alternative vocal applications. By the end of the month, the expert predicts, the share of the indicator can reach 50%.

As you can see, the official explanations of blocking calls in messengers look unconvincing. Too many contradictions with previously voiced data and suspiciously accurate coincidence with the promotion of “domestic decisions”. This is increasingly reminiscent of the rejection of network neutrality and too rough attempt to impose state platforms.