Russia bans Threema and other well-known courier services

As of March 1, various foreign messenger and internet telephony services (VoIP) may no longer be used in Russia, the censorship authority Roskomnadzor recalled in a recent press release.

The relevant law prohibits Russian organizations from using “information exchange systems” owned by foreign companies.

Who is affected?

Roskomnadzor lists the following foreign online services on its website:

Interestingly, California-based Zoom, one of the world’s most widely used video conferencing platforms, is not on the banned list. The well-known open-source messenger Signal, which, like Threema and WhatsApp, would offer tap-proof end-to-end encryption, is also not listed.

Why is Russia doing this?

The current ban does not appear to be an attempt by the Putin regime to restrict the uncensored flow of information, writes the tech blog Bleeping Computer.

On the contrary, Russia is very cautious and actively restricts the use of foreign software in critical economic sectors to minimize the risk of foreign secret services gaining access to sensitive data.

The censorship commission had previously demanded some of the services mentioned above, including Discord and Telegram, to remove “misinformation” from their platforms.

As is well known, it is a criminal offense in Russia to critically comment on Vladimir Putin’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine.

Why is Shutterstock banned?

Also on Wednesday, the censorship authority Roskomnadzor announced it had blocked the website of US stock photo provider Shutterstock in Russia. This is reported by the Russian state news agency TASS, referring to a decision by the Russian consumer protection agency Rospotrebnadzor.

The reason given was that the Shutterstock website had “repeatedly posted destructive material, including suicidal and pro-drug content.”

And Threema?

At Watson’s request, the Swiss company said it would check the report from Russia.

In June 2022, it was announced that a Russian court had fined Threema. The Swiss start-up is said to have failed to comply with rules for courier services that are part of a Russian “anti-terrorism package” that took effect in 2018.

Accordingly, Threema and Co. should be able to identify users based on their phone number and pass on data to the Russian domestic secret service FSB.

Threema’s management then announced that under no circumstances would data be handed over to the Russian authorities. A shielded communication channel is a valuable asset for protecting privacy, especially in countries with limited freedom of expression.

Sources

(dsc)