{"id":7641,"date":"2026-03-03T19:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T19:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/?p=7641"},"modified":"2026-03-03T19:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T19:23:14","slug":"russia-targets-whatsapp-as-it-pushes-homegrown-messenger-app","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/2026\/03\/03\/russia-targets-whatsapp-as-it-pushes-homegrown-messenger-app\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia targets WhatsApp as it pushes homegrown messenger app"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Russian authorities have officially blocked access to WhatsApp and placed severe restrictions on Telegram as part of an intensified campaign to centralize control over the country\u2019s digital space. Both WhatsApp and Telegram executives have condemned the move, characterizing it as an attempt to force over 100 million users onto &#8220;Max,&#8221; a state-backed &#8220;super app&#8221; that critics warn is designed for surveillance and political censorship. While WhatsApp remains accessible through VPNs, authorities are increasingly targeting such workarounds, and officials say the platform\u2019s future in Russia depends on Meta\u2019s willingness to comply with local laws.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Date:<\/strong> February 12, 2026. <strong>Source<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/russia-targets-whatsapp-and-telegram-pushes-homegrown-app\/\">politico.eu<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russian authorities have officially blocked access to WhatsApp and placed severe restrictions on Telegram as part of an intensified campaign to centralize control over the country\u2019s digital space. Both WhatsApp and Telegram executives have condemned the move, characterizing it as an attempt to force over 100 million users onto &#8220;Max,&#8221; a state-backed &#8220;super app&#8221; that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":7647,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-unregulated-digitalization-of-political-arena"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7641"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7929,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7641\/revisions\/7929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}