The messaging app violated anti-terrorism laws and was easily exploited by scammers, officials have said
Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor (RKN) has blocked access to the popular instant messaging service Viber, citing multiple failures to remove criminal content.
The app has 17 million unique daily users in Russia, according to tech news website Telecom Daily.
In its statement on Friday, RKN said access to Viber “has been restricted” due to violations of national laws aimed at preventing the use of online messengers to engage in “terrorist and extremist” crimes, drug dealing, and the dissemination of “unlawful information.”
Anton Nemkin, a member of the State Duma who sits on the parliamentary information policy and communications committee, told TASS news agency that Viber’s owners have failed to pay 1.8 million rubles ($17,230) in fines and “continue to ignore Russian laws.” He added that Viber “does not delete illegal information,” including information related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Nemkin also said the messenger is popular with scammers who target elderly people. He claimed that “foreign intelligence services” could exploit Viber as a recruitment tool for potential spies.
Elina Sidorenko, who runs the online safety NGO ‘Bely Internet’ (White Internet) and is a member of the presidential Human Rights Council, told the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that Russians have lost 5 billion rubles ($47.8 million) to Viber scammers. “Viber didn’t protect its users, didn’t want to cooperate [with the authorities],” she said.
Moscow has cracked down on social media platforms in recent years, citing persistent violations of national laws through the hosting illegal content, such as disinformation, hate speech, and the promotion of “extremist” activities.
In 2022, the authorities banned access to X (formerly Twitter) and designated Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, an “extremist organization,” for refusal to take down criminal content.
Viber was founded in 2010 by Igor Magazinnik, who emigrated from Russia to Israel at the age of 16, and Israeli-American entrepreneur Talmon Marco. The company was bought by the Japanese tech giant Rakuten in 2014.
