Russia’s state communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, has ordered the blocking of Open Whisper Systems’ secure messaging app Signal. The order comes after Russian authorities claimed that Signal’s parent company, Facebook, had refused to provide information necessary for Russian servers to decrypt user messages. Signal is highly regarded for its end-to-end encryption, which means that even the company itself cannot read user messages. This is the latest in a series of online restrictions imposed by the Russian government, which has previously targeted popular platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. Signal remains accessible in Russia through virtual private network (VPN) services.
