Technology & Science
Russia Excises WhatsApp from National DNS, Pushes Users to State ‘Max’ Messenger
Between 11–12 Feb 2026 Roskomnadzor deleted WhatsApp’s domains from Russia’s parallel DNS and ordered a nationwide block of the service, while throttling Telegram, in the first mass use of the 2019 “sovereign internet” powers.
Focusing Facts
- Thirteen sites—including WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube and major foreign news outlets—were removed from the National Domain Name System on 11 Feb 2026, severing their IP resolution inside Russia.
- The move potentially disconnects over 100 million Russian WhatsApp users unless they resort to VPNs, according to Meta and independent monitors.
- Since January 2025 all new devices sold in Russia must ship with VK-built ‘Max’; state media say it already has 55 million users.
Context
This is Russia’s boldest step toward a gated Runet since the 2019 ‘sovereign internet’ law—an echo of China’s Great Firewall rollout (notably the 2009 YouTube block and 2014 WeChat consolidation) and, further back, the tsarist monopoly over telegraph lines in 1865 meant to police dissent. The action accelerates the global splinter-net trend where major powers erect technical and legal moats around data flows, trading interoperability for political leverage. By converting DNS control—once an apolitical plumbing layer—into a censorship switch, Moscow signals that network sovereignty now rivals currency or borders as a tool of wartime statecraft. Whether Max succeeds or Russians double-down on VPNs will shape the durability of Russia’s information cordon, but on a 100-year horizon it marks another fracture in the post-1990 ideal of a single, open internet, edging the world toward balkanised digital blocs reminiscent of the pre-WWI patchwork of incompatible railway gauges.
Perspectives
International outlets critical of Kremlin censorship
e.g., RFE/RL, CNN, Al Jazeera — They frame the WhatsApp and Telegram blocks as the Kremlin’s latest attempt to stifle free speech, herd 100 million Russians onto the surveillance-prone Max app and sever the country from the global internet. These outlets spotlight digital-rights voices while downplaying Russia’s stated legal justifications, reflecting their long-standing scepticism of Moscow and inclination to equate Russian regulation with authoritarian repression.
Russian government and pro-Kremlin messaging cited in coverage
e.g., statements by Peskov carried by Capital FM Kenya, SABC News — Officials present the ban as a lawful response to Meta’s non-compliance and a patriotic push toward a reliable national messenger, portraying Max as a convenient home-grown alternative. The narrative emphasises sovereignty and security while glossing over surveillance concerns, serving the Kremlin’s interest in tighter information control and portraying foreign tech firms as law-breakers.
Global-South business/tech press tracking digital-sovereignty trends
e.g., Businessday NG — They read Russia’s move as a case study for countries like Nigeria considering stronger data-localisation and platform regulation in the name of digital sovereignty. By treating the crackdown as a potential ‘road-map,’ they risk normalising heavy-handed state control if it promises strategic leverage, giving less weight to civil-liberty costs highlighted elsewhere.