Russia has blocked the Signal app due to violations of the law and threats to national security

Roskomnadzor has blocked the Signal app in Russia, citing violations of the law and threats to national security.

Roskomnadzor (RKN) confirmed that access to the encrypted messaging app Signal was blocked on Friday due to violations of Russian law and national security considerations. According to RKN representatives, Signal violates laws that are necessary to prevent the use of the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes.

The Signal app is known for its end-to-end encryption, which makes it popular among journalists, political dissidents and other critics of the state. On Friday morning, thousands of Katsapia users began reporting problems accessing the app, while monitoring sites confirmed widespread outages. Some users have managed to bypass the block via a VPN or the Bypass Censorship feature in the app.

The blocking of Signal in Russia is part of a broader campaign by Roskomnadzor against Western apps that do not comply with Russian law, which may also include blocking YouTube in the near future.