Russia blocks China’s social media app WeChat

Russian telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor has listed China’s WeChat, the popular social media app developed by Tencent Technology, on the register of prohibited websites, according to information posted on the regulator’s website on Friday.

Tencent was aware of the move and communicating with Russian authorities over the matter, according to a brief statement from the Shenzhen-based company.

Russia required internet service providers to register with related government bodies, but Tencent “had a different understanding” on this issue, the company said.

WeChat, with nearly 900 million users worldwide, is the latest chat and messaging platform to be blocked by Moscow’s communications and media regulator. A few days earlier, Roskomnadzor, officially known as the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications, blocked BlackBerry Messenger, Line and Vchat.

Russia is trying to copy China’s approach in internet censorship, according to a recent article by Emily Parker, a fellow at New America, a non-profit think tank.

Park wrote in an article last month that Russians enjoyed an internet that was mostly unrestricted a few years ago, but Russia was pursuing China’s model of internet control, prompted in part by recognition that an unfettered internet had helped foster anti-government protests.