WhatsApp was completely blocked in Russia

The WhatsApp messenger domain has been removed from the DNS servers of Roskomnadzor. Thus, the department completely blocks access to foreign services in Russia, reports the Exploit telegram channel.

The day before, on February 10, Roskomnadzor blocked YouTube video hosting in a similar way. As telecom market expert Alexey Uchakin explained in a conversation with RBC, deletion from DNS servers indicates that the department is freeing up resources to slow down Telegram. Roskomnadzor does not have enough resources to slow down several large services at the same time.

“This is saving resources. Since all providers are required to use the national domain name system, that is, DNS servers under the control of Roskomnadzor, we get a crude but fairly reliable “switch” for YouTube in Russia. Although even such a measure will not affect all loopholes for bypassing blocking,” Uchakin noted.

WhatsApp, similar to YouTube, is blocked using the so-called “sovereign Runet” technology - the messenger was removed from the National Domain Name System (NDNS), which was introduced back in 2021 after the law on the “sovereign Runet” came into force.

Whatsapp domains were removed from NSDI. com and web.whatsapp. com, whereas the technical domain for the WhatsApp messenger. net and the domain for quick links wa. me is still in the system list. Now access to the messenger is possible only through a VPN.

For the first time, the work of the NSDI in practice, as the Agency writes, could be observed in January 2024. Then a glitch occurred, due to which users from all over the world were unable to access sites in the RU domain zone. However, on the territory of Russia, NDIS users retained access.