Russia blocks messaging app Signal as authorities tighten control over information

Monitoring website apps Downradar and Sboy.rf both revealed that service disruptions had affected users of Russian social media messaging network Signal.

First reported by independent news source iStories, the outage began on Friday morning, August 9.

Considered one of the most secure messaging apps, Signal Messenger allows users to share files, have audio and video conversations, and send encrypted texts.

Following the deployment of Russian troops to Ukraine in February 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin intensified his crackdown on the opposition and free media.

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Access to Twitter, later renamed X, as well as Facebook and Instagram Meta has been blocked, along with a number of independent Russian-language media outlets critical of the Kremlin.

Director of the Internet Protection Society and the man behind the ZaTelecom Telegram channel, Mikhail Klimarev, claims that Russia started blocking Signal on August 8.

“This rather indicates a blocking of the messenger service in Russia, rather than a technical problem on Signal’s side,” Mikhail Klimarev, author of the Telegram channel “For Telecom”, told Reuters.

Russia blocks messaging app Signal as authorities tighten control over information first appeared on Latest Nigeria News | Top Stories from Ripples Nigeria.