The end of Snapchat in Russia. The authorities blocked access to the messenger

Roskomnadzor, the Russian telecommunications market regulator, has blocked access to the Snapchat messenger, the state-owned Russian RIA agency reported on Thursday, quoted by Reuters.

“According to law enforcement agencies, Snapchat is used to organize and carry out terrorist activities in the country, recruit perpetrators, commit fraud and other crimes against our citizens,” Roskomnadzor said in a statement.

Snapchat allows users to send messages and photos that disappear after the recipient reads them or after 24 hours.

Earlier on Thursday, Russia blocked access to FaceTime, a video calling service offered by Apple devices. In this case, the justification was similar – according to a statement by Roskomnadzor, “FaceTime is used to organize and carry out terrorist attacks in the country, recruit perpetrators, fraud and other crimes against Russian citizens.”

As Reuters reminds, as part of the increasing repression against Western technology platforms, Russia has already imposed restrictions on YouTube owned by Google, WhatsApp owned by Meta and the Telegram messenger. (PAP)

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