Russia Moves to Fully Block WhatsApp, Forcing Users Toward State-Run Messenger

Moscow’s bid recalls the USSR’s Glavlit directives of 1932 and the 1980s jamming of Voice of America—state efforts to monopolize information. It also mirrors China’s 2003–06 rollout of the Great Firewall, which sidelined foreign platforms in favor of WeChat and Weibo. The move sits within the 2010s-2020s wave of “digital sovereignty,” where governments from India to Turkey seek local control over data and encryption after the Snowden disclosures and amid geopolitical conflicts. Whether Russia can sustain a block on an end-to-end-encrypted app will influence the century-long tug-of-war between centralized state power and decentralized private communication; success could legitimize similar crackdowns elsewhere, while failure would underscore the limits of territorial control in a borderless internet.