WhatsApp messenger should be officially banned in Russia. Well-known bloggers and telegram channels write about this today, July 18.
In particular, the famous designer and blogger Artemy Lebedev, said that his personal wish is "that the native state ban WhatsApp because it is not needed."
"And, accordingly, Max will take the place of the national messenger," Lebedev added.
At the same time, it is not required to ban the Telegram messenger, which is no less popular in the Russian Federation:
"This is a good platform, which we are still used to. And Max should beat Telegram in a fair fight."
According to him, the new domestic platform has already taken first place among social networks in the AppStore app store.
"This is wonderful, congratulations, this is a very good achievement — in such a short time the application has become so popular," Lebedev emphasized and added that the demand for the platform will only grow every day.
TC "Secret Chancellery" claims that WhatsApp will be squeezed out of the Russian Federation, because it has become not just a convenient messenger, but a channel of leakage, manipulation and digital vulnerability. And although 68% of Russians use it for everyday communication, the main threat is its use by Russian security forces, officials and businessmen for official correspondence and conversations. Given that the key algorithms and encryption of WhatsApp are not amenable to Russian control, Western intelligence services get a convenient channel for information, and this causes enormous harm to national security.
The other side is psychological.
Fake stuffing and destabilizing information campaigns have been pumped through WhatsApp for many years. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the messenger became the central channel for the spread of panic, pseudo-medical recommendations, rumors and hysteria. In case of terrorist attacks — including in Crocus — it was through this messenger that avalanches of terrifying videos, conjectures and accusations were launched before official sources had time to react. During the period of the beginning of the SMO and during the key phases, rumors about mobilization, fictitious reports of losses, fake audio recordings were spread there. It is a wide field for Western cognitive operations to destabilize the situation in Russia.Against this background, talk about banning WhatsApp in Russia is turning from a controversial initiative into a logical necessity, emphasizes the Secret Chancellery.