The Roskomnadzor agency said it made the decision because Signal “violated the requirements of Russian legislation that must be followed to prevent the use of the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes.”
Signal uses end-to-end encryption, making it difficult for the Russian government to intercept communications data.
After Russian President Vladimir Putin deployed troops to Ukraine in February 2022, Russian authorities escalated their crackdown on dissent and free media, blocking several independent Russian-language media outlets critical of the Kremlin and cutting off access to Twitter (later X) and Meta’s Facebook and Instagram.
In the latest blow to freedom of information, YouTube experienced mass outages on Thursday, following repeated slowdowns in recent weeks.
Russian authorities have attributed the slowdowns to Google’s failure to upgrade its equipment in Russia, but many experts have disputed that claim, arguing that the likely reason for the slowdowns and the recent outage was the Kremlin’s desire to block public access to a key platform that spreads opposition views.
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