A new Russian law authorizes the creation of a state-run messaging app that is intended to decrease Moscow’s reliance on foreign-owned platforms such as Telegram and WhatsApp. Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the new law on Tuesday, June 24.
Russian lawmakers claim the app will include features not available from rival platforms, such as access to government services, including all “educational services and chats that educational institutions of all levels currently use,” The Kyiv Independent of Ukraine reported.
The messenger, Russian lawmakers said, will also “strengthen the protection of information exchanged among users.”
Pressure to use new app
Critics believe Russia will give citizens little choice in using the app. Mikhail Kilmarev, director of the Internet Protection Society, believes Russia will throttle the speeds of its competitors’ messengers to encourage adoption, Reuters reported.Â
In 2024, Russian lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein admitted that the government purposely slowed down YouTube, a move Russia initially attempted to blame on Google’s servers.
Russia has aggressively monitored domestic chatter online, an effort that has resulted in the rollout of new surveillance tool aimed at suppressing opposition to the Ukraine war. Now, with the new messaging app, fears have been raised over further consolidation of data by Moscow.
Seeking digital sovereignty
Putin has long wanted Russia to achieve digital sovereignty by developing apps domestically. The initiative intensified after Western tech companies withdrew from Russia after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow that same year banned Facebook and Instagram, both U.S. companies owned by Meta. Two years later, Russia’s communications regular, Roskomnadzor, blocked the apps Signal and Viber. Officials are now discussing whether to ban Meta’s WhatsApp. Russia has labeled Meta an “extremist organization.”
U.S. concerns about Meta
Putin’s decision comes amid growing concerns in the United States over the privacy and security practices of Meta. The chief administrative officer of the U.S. House of Representatives told congressional staffers on Monday, June 23, that WhatsApp would no longer be permitted on government devices, Axios reported.
“The Office of Cybersecurity has deemed WhatsApp a high-risk to users due to the lack of transparency in how it protects user data, absence of stored data encryption, and potential security risks involved with its use,” an email to staff members said.
In a post on X, Meta spokesman Andy Stone wrote that the company disagrees “with the House Chief Administrative Officer’s characterization in the strongest possible terms.”
“We know members and their staffs regularly use WhatsApp and we look forward to ensuring members of the House can join their Senate counterparts in doing so officially,” Stone wrote.
Stone said WhatsApp’s encryption provides a a higher level of security than apps deemed acceptable for congressional staffers, including FaceTime, iMessage, Microsoft Teams, Signal and Wickr.
The security of messaging apps came under scrutiny in the first weeks after President Donald Trump returned to the White House. Several national security and defense officials used a group chat on Signal to discuss impending airstrikes against the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen. Their use of a commercial app – rather than a secure program installed on government computers and devices – came to light after it was revealed one official had inadvertently added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, to the group chat.
It was later discovered that the Trump administration was using a Signal clone known as TeleMessage, which was found to be storing sensitive government data unencrypted.Â
TeleMessage was breached soon afterward by a hacker who described the infiltration as trivial.
