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Both Russia and Venezuela have blocked access to the encrypted messaging app Signal, The Verge reports.
The Russian news service Interfax broke the news about the block on the Signal app in Russia. Russia’s telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor restricted the app due to “violations of the requirements of the Russian legislation whose fulfillment is necessary to prevent the use of the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes,” according to the Russian report.
The cybersecurity tracker NetBlocks confirmed on X on Friday that Russia has restricted access to Signal “on most internet providers.” NetBlocks also noted the app “remains usable with ‘censorship circumvention’ enabled” in Signal’s settings echoing a recommendation from the Signal’s X account to users who’ve been blocked from their messages in both regions .
The blocking of Signal in Venezuela occurred in the long shadow of the country’s disputed presidential election results from the end of July. Venezuela’s electoral authority declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner without publishing any evidence of his win, sparking protests from detractors and supporters of Maduro’s opponent Edmundo González, according to the Associated Press.
Both regions have been cutting off access to other similar social media apps possibly as a way to quiet dissenting voices. President Maduro banned X earlier today for a period of 10 days claiming that the company’s owner Elon Musk was inciting hatred and “violated” his social network’s rules. VOA News also reported a “mass YouTube outage” in Russia on Thursday.
