Russian President Vladimir Putin is ramping up efforts to control the country's internet by cracking down on functionality and access to western apps amid a buildout of a state-approved messaging service that's expected to roll out next month, The New York Times reported Sunday.
The service, called MAX, will be preinstalled on all smart phones sold in Russia as speculation mounts on Putin's plan to potentially block Russians from using WhatsApp and Telegram, according to the Times.
The idea is to filter Russians into a state-controlled online environment that's easily monitored and censored, according to the report.
"The goal here is absolute control," Anastasiia Kruope, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, told the Times, adding that the state's technical capabilities to operate its internet in isolation are improving.
"They are not perfect," Kruope told the newspaper. "They are not nearly at the level they would like them to be. But they are getting better, and this is the reason to start paying attention."
Russians have long enjoyed online freedom, including access to western platforms and posting content freely. However, the rise of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his use of blog posts and YouTube videos to mobilize people posed a threat to the Kremlin, according to the report. Navalny died in a Russian prison in February 2024.
The Kremlin subsequently banned Facebook, Instagram, and X and disabled TikTok functions inside Russia. After a takeover of social network VK, Russia built out a videostreaming service and filtered users into that platform while throttling YouTube, according to the Times.
With the advent of MAX, Anton Gorelkin, deputy head of the IT committee in Russia's lower house of Parliament, said last month that WhatsApp should "prepare to leave the Russian market," the Times reported.
Gorelkin previously said Telegram "worries the state," but it's unclear if Moscow will ban the service, owned by a Russian-born internet entrepreneur, according to the report.
"I am very afraid that other methods of communication are going to be blocked," Mikhail Klimarev, head of the Internet Protection Society, told the Times.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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