Russian users of Signal messenger have experienced service outages, according to monitoring websites Downradar and Sboy.rf.
The outage started early on Friday, August 9 and was first brought to attention by the independent news source iStories.
Signal is regarded as one of the most secure messaging apps, allowing users to communicate encrypted texts, make voice and video chats, and share files.
The messenger was restricted “due to violations of the requirements of Russian legislation, compliance with which is necessary to prevent the use of the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes,” Roskomnadzor told RBC.
Newsng gathered that hundreds of Signal users reported issues with the messenger software, which is a secure communications tool used by up to a million Russians to encrypt chats and texts before Roskomnadzor announced that it had taken action.
More than 1,500 complaints concerning Signal were found on internet service monitoring sites, primarily from consumers in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
However, users said that when using the built-in censorship bypass mode or connecting using a VPN, it was operating as intended.
Russia began censoring Signal on August 8, according to Mikhail Klimarev, the director of the Internet Protection Society and creator of the Telegram channel ZaTelecom.
“This indicates precisely a blocking of the messenger in Russia and not a technical problem on the Signal side,” Mikhail Klimarev, author of the Telegram channel “For Telecom”, told Reuters.
Russia previously banned the Telegram messaging service in 2018 because it refused to hand over the “encryption keys” that would allow authorities to access users’ private communications and prevent terrorist attacks.
The mostly unsuccessful prohibition was abolished in 2020.
We earlier reported that weeks after Russian officials blasted the video-streaming site for what they called anti-Kremlin activity, users in Russia reported extensive outages of YouTube on Thursday.
