In Russia, partial restrictions have been introduced on voice calls in the two most popular messengers — Telegram and WhatsApp. This was announced by the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media of Russia (Roskomnadzor). According to the agency, the measures were implemented to combat criminals following numerous appeals from law enforcement agencies and citizens.
According to the information, in recent times certain fraudulent and dangerous calls have been carried out specifically through voice calls. Roskomnadzor’s statement notes that these messengers are often used to deceive Russian citizens, extort money, and recruit them into sabotage and terrorist activities.
The agency stated that the owners of Telegram and WhatsApp had been repeatedly requested to take measures against criminals, but they failed to comply. Therefore, the restrictions apply only to voice calls, while other functions such as messaging and file sharing will continue to operate.
Roskomnadzor reminded that since 2024, through the “Antifraud” system, calls made with number spoofing have been blocked in the networks of telecommunications operators. As a result, such calls have increasingly been made via messengers that do not comply with security requirements.
In response to these restrictions, the WhatsApp press service reported on the platform’s default end-to-end encryption system. According to them, this protection allows only the sender and recipient to read the data and resists government attempts to compromise secure communication. They believe this is why the Russian authorities are trying to impose restrictions on WhatsApp, which is used by more than 100 million people in the country.
The Telegram press service also expressed its position, emphasizing that the platform actively combats harmful activities. They said that moderators, using special artificial intelligence tools, monitor open channels, delete millions of harmful messages daily, and have introduced call privacy settings allowing users to choose from whom to accept calls or disable them entirely.
Furthermore, according to the Downdetector service on August 11, large-scale technical malfunctions were recorded in WhatsApp and Telegram on that day. The number of complaints from Russian users sharply increased from August 10, with most of them concerning connection issues during video calls.
According to data from the Central Bank of Russia published in February 2025, 45.6% of fraud cases occur via mobile communications, and 15.7% via messengers. Experts believe that the restrictions may stop some dangerous schemes, but they may also affect users’ freedom of everyday communication.
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