Russian users banned from Telegram and WhatsApp as Moscow tightens internet censorship

According to monitoring websites, users of both platforms reported an increase in server connection problems starting at around 2:00 p.m. Moscow time (11:00 GMT).

Roskomnadzor said the “attack,” which caused “widespread disruptions” to the app's services, was repelled within an hour and the service was back to normal.

The regulator blamed the outage on a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyberattack targeting Russian telecom operators.

The goal of a DDoS attack is to force a website offline by overloading it with malicious Internet traffic.

The outages come as human rights groups accuse Moscow of tightening internet censorship and banning websites that provide independent information about the Ukraine conflict.

Russia labeled Meta, WhatsApp's parent company, as “extremist” in 2022 and blocked Meta's Instagram and Facebook sites as the Kremlin tightened its control over the social media sphere.

Authorities also threatened to ban popular video-sharing site YouTube after users reported difficulties accessing the site in Russia earlier this month.