A Russian lawmaker who regulates the IT industry has said that WhatsApp should prepare to stop providing its services in the country. Anton Gorelkin, deputy chairman of the lower house of parliament’s information technology committee, said it is very likely that WhatsApp will be added to the list of banned software, Reuters reports.
WhatsApp’s owner, Meta, is recognized as an extremist organization in Russia, which has banned Facebook and Instagram since 2022. This week, President Vladimir Putin issued a decree to further restrict software (including communication applications) from “unfriendly countries” that have imposed sanctions on Russia, with a deadline of September 1. Gorelkin said WhatsApp is likely to be one of those services.
In June, Putin signed a law creating a state messaging app that would be linked to government services as part of a longstanding effort to rely more on Russian services and less on foreign tech companies, some of which have pulled out of the country or curtailed operations there since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Gorelkin suggested that forcing WhatsApp to cease operations in Russia could help the state-backed app gain a larger market share.
