Russia plans to block WhatsApp

The Kremlin-controlled VK corporation has begun developing a new "national messenger" to replace the WhatsApp app, which Russian authorities may block this autumn.

Source: Russian online newspaper The Moscow Times, citing Russian socio-political news outlet Verstka

Details: Verstka sources indicate that a new messaging platform for Russian users is set to be developed using the existing TamTam app from Mail.Ru Group as its foundation.

"We conducted a study on how to make a decent messenger so that it could handle everything and be on par with WhatsApp. So we decided to use TamTam as a basis," explained one of the Verstka sources.

Another source revealed that VK management initially intended for VK Messenger to be the sole Russian alternative to WhatsApp, but its performance proved to be too weak.

TamTam is listed in VK's internal presentations as the most suitable option, though it "requires some technical improvements".

The timeline for finalising the messenger is estimated to be one year.

Background: On 8 August, Russian YouTube users started complaining about the complete shutdown of the video hosting service.

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