[News updated at 15:12 on 08/12/2025]
On August 11, 2025, users in Russia faced interruptions in voice and video calls in Telegram and WhatsApp messengers. Data from the Downdetector service shows that over 8,000 complaints about Telegram and over 5,000 about WhatsApp have been received in a day.
According to sources, the problems may be related to test restrictions on voice communication in these messengers. Telecom operators stated that their networks are operating normally, and failures could have occurred for external reasons. The Ministry of Digital Development and Roskomnadzor have not provided official comments.
Experts note an increase in fraudulent calls via messengers: according to Informzashita, up to 40% of such calls are fraudulent, with about 70% coming from abroad. Possible restrictions on VoIP calls to combat fraud have been discussed previously.
As an alternative, users are offered the Russian messenger Max from VK, which should begin full operation on September 1. To date, it has been downloaded more than 1 million times on Google Play and 2 million times on RuStore.
Updated. The head of Rostelecom, Mikhail Osevsky, said that the company is not aware of any initiatives to restrict calls in Telegram and WhatsApp.
We don't know anything about such an initiative.
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