As we always report on these pages, nations are pushing for the development of domestic software and hardware devices, that is, technologies developed within the nation that are more easily controlled from a national security perspective.
While these may seem like excellent initiatives on an economic and national level, they carry with them serious risks for the future of the Internet and “globalization.”
Erecting “Digital Walls” and avoiding shared technologies creates digital divides that isolate nations, limiting collaboration and technological exchange on a global scale (find out more in Massimiliano Brolli’s article) .
This approach, while ensuring greater control over internal security, risks fragmenting the technological landscape, hindering innovation and exacerbating geopolitical tensions . The race for digital sovereignty “could lead to a world where each nation builds its own technological walls, generating conflict and inequality in the long term.”
Russia’s Roskomnadzor said WhatsApp continues to violate Russian law and is therefore consistently imposing restrictive measures against the messaging app.
Roskomnadzor claims that WhatsApp is being used to organize and carry out terrorist attacks in the country, recruit terrorists, and commit fraud and other crimes against citizens.
The regulator clarified that the restrictions will be introduced gradually to allow users to switch to alternative messaging apps and recommended switching to domestic services.
Roskomnadzor also stressed that restrictions on WhatsApp will continue and that if Russian law is not respected, the messaging service could be completely blocked.
In the early morning hours of December 22, users in Russia began complaining en masse about WhatsApp. According to monitoring service SBOY.RF, 1,283 reports were registered in the last 24 hours, and a graph of the last 14 days showed a sharp increase in reports at the end of the period.
The largest number of reports of connection failures and errors came from Moscow, followed by St. Petersburg and the Moscow region.
According to user feedback, some users were unable to send messages, and the web version and desktop app failed to connect. However, the mobile version continued to work for some, sometimes only via VPN.
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