Telegram still works.Oh, this report troubles me. Because I stay in contact with a friend in Russia via FaceTime, either audio or video calls.
We have been in contact almost daily since 2009. And regular phone calls would be prohibitively expensive
Hardly anything internet related would have a deeper impact on my life. Unless internet gets blocked out via age verification requirements
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Russia Blocks Apple's FaceTime Amid Crackdown on Encrypted Apps
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Yes, it will. The EU is already working on that...
Chat Control: EU will see your private messages
EU governments have finally agreed on a controversial new law that gives a backdoor to reading text messages and viewing photo messages
euroweeklynews.com
Aggressively hostile autocratic regimes are exactly the type of government that tech companies love to work with, as it means there's no pesky representation of the general populace. Tech bros are just another iteration of oligarchs / merchant-princes.
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It's not a matter of "not understanding", it's matter of not having any belief that Russia will ever change. It's never been a democracy in any real sense, the "glasnost" blip notwithstanding. The Russian Federation doesn't have citizens, it has subjects. The Romanovs were Tsars, Stalin was a Tsar, Putin is a Tsar. Despite the changing political trappings, Russia has always been and still is run under a system of feudalism.
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There goes my family vacation planned for Siberia
What’s old is new again.
Democracy is a mirage.
Weapons just have a larger blast radius.
The kriminals are inside the Kremlin though
Pens and paper ages are gone thanks to cameras and surveillance everywhere.
Back in 1900s it was possible to organize a coup with just a “pen and paper” (paper as money too), but these days they monitor everyone 24/7 and probably even developing such an AI that would be able to ban people for “thoughtcrimes”, kinda like social credit system but made in Russia.
These days most countries would track criminals “by the money”, so when the transaction happens - that kind of hints that someone did something. But non-democratic countries would usually push even further and implement full-scale monitoring so people cannot even discuss anything different from government agenda. It works thru fear too, up to the point people would self-censor themselves and would never think that “their leaders could do something wrong”.
I doubt, and even if yes, the nature of WhatsApp doesn’t allow third party to retrieve messages since it works as P2P client - messages only stay on devices of users who are communicating, if one deletes and another does that too, probably it would need physical access to phone to be able to recover data, i.e. too complicated unless they would really want to do that.
WhatsApp is not ideal but Telegram for example keeps all messages in the cloud, and there is a lot of space for “cooperation” with authorities.
More of a wishful thinking. For almost 4 years they have been using war as an ultimate propaganda instrument, and they haven’t really used a lot of resources to sustain that effort, partially thanks to economic aid from China and India who buy Russian oil and manufacture stuff that Russia depends on (cars, tech, clothing etc). Sanctions do not work, unfortunately.
Social network bans are more about tightening the grip over that propaganda. They want everyone to use something controllable like VK or Telegram.
Well, they are helping Russia a lot, so while they are not fighting like North Koreans, they are actively aiding by oil purchases and various economic perks.
While India is trying to balance between West and Russia, China mostly sided with Russia.
There was also some info (dunno if it is true) that Chinese satellites are used to guide missile and drone attacks in Ukraine.
True. There are simply no incentives for ordinary Russians to do a regime change. That was more of a mix of propaganda, wishful thinking and wrong assessment by western think tanks and intelligence agencies that “Russia will fall soon”.
Banning of western services would have no effect on people in Russia since they use their own services or Telegram that is only partially blocked in country.
Russian government has also organized lots of “perks” for their citizens to “keep mouths shut” such as parallel import scheme so that people are able to buy newest iPhones, created their own banking alternative to VISA, abundance of Chinese goods also keeps citizens “happy”, and the economy turned out to be more prepared than previously assessed
I’m shocked, a totalitarian state clamping down on systems that can’t be monitored. China, Russia just embracing the Orwellian model.
Russia has blocked Apple's FaceTime video calling app in an ongoing effort to eliminate private communication methods, reports Reuters. Russia claims FaceTime is being used for criminal activity, and that blocking the app is a legitimate law enforcement measure. Social network Snapchat and multiplayer gaming platform Roblox were also banned this week.
Multiple other apps and services have been blocked in Russia previously. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Discord, and LinkedIn are unavailable and can't be accessed without a VPN. Russia throttles YouTube heavily to make it almost unusable, and since 2022, TikTok has had a Russia-only feed that does not include content from other countries.
Viber and Signal are banned in the country, and Russians are not able to make calls through WhatsApp or Telegram as of earlier this year. Messaging on those apps is also restricted.
In a statement to Reuters, Russia's media regulator Roskomnadzor said the following:
FaceTime is now restricted nationwide, and has likely been blocked at the network level, so it may still be accessible through a VPN. Moscow residents are seeing a "User unavailable" message when attempting to use FaceTime, which is the error displayed when a FaceTime call is unable to connect. The app still opens and activates, so Apple hasn't removed it.
Russia claims that the app is used for coordinating illegal activity, with no option for the Federal Security Service (FSB) to monitor calls. Apple has declined to allow the FSB to access FaceTime traffic, and the company has not budged on end-to-end encryption.
FaceTime likely wasn't banned earlier because Russia initially focused on more widely used apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. When voice and video calling were banned in those apps, Russians transitioned to FaceTime as an alternative, making it a government target.
Note: Due to the political or social nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Political News forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.
Article Link: Russia Blocks Apple's FaceTime Amid Crackdown on Encrypted Apps
This is what will come to all democratic countries unless you take a stand.
It's so wild how this tool even has so many supporters like the war could stop tomorrow if the people would be like "lol no". He'd be nothing without them but the US government is showing signs leading the same way, like all these old white men are just clapping and smiling behind 🍊 cuz they don't want to loose their positions so they just stand their nodding
According to you it doesn’t indicate paranoia and a sudden perceived need to control people more tightly in Russia. It’s just the Russian government tightening its grip on propaganda to make people more controllable.
Simultaneously denying an observation while confirming it backwards in the next sentence is classic Russian double-think. It’s a frightening and sad second nature for so many Russians.
It doesn't make me happy to say it, but I think the above is absolutely true. The current regime is pretty awful for the vast majority of people living in the Russian federation ( specifically anyone outside the middle-class+ enclaves in Moscow, St Petersburg and a few other cities), but a regime change, while improving life for many other parts of the world that are not in the Russian federation, would not make any improvement for those living in Russia.
As The Who said, "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss".
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I was in Moscow last year and everybody there is using Instagram for example, although it is officially blocked. Russians will always find a way. They even kept McDonald's although it officially left the country. They just rebranded the restaurants, but the burgers stayed the same.
And I have to remind western people that the UK also wants to ban end-to-end encryption.
And I have to remind western people that the UK also wants to ban end-to-end encryption.
To be honest that was pretty misreported. They wanted access from the Providers to specific accounts with a Judge signed Order in very specific cases about national security/terror. Not some free for all backdoor that Q can just press a button and read your stuff live like in a spy movie.
The same with the Encrypted iCloud backups - They wanted access to to them... but that's something Apple cannot even do, so they just turned it off for the UK. The courts already have the power to access iCloud Backups that aren't encrypted.
Well, the UK Labour government is trying it's best to get encrypted stuff banned. So many countries are going to crap.
I don’t think so, as the app is blocked as well and calls only work via VPN, and even then there is now a 3-second delay, so it’s almost unusable.
The vast majority go the population of the Russian Federation are extremely poor. The Human Development Index, produced by the United Nations Development Programme (which is pretty objective and not skewed in the favor of "western" biases is a reasonable starting reference for this) The Russian "government" are making sure that there the wealthier minority have enough loopholes to "always find a way".
I don't mean any disrespect, but were the parts of Moscow you were in last year really representative of daily life in the Russian federation as a whole?
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McDonalds sold all their restaurants to a local Master Franchisee 2022 and have rebranded as Vkusno i Tochka. Pretty much everything was locally sourced so it was probably pretty easy. Bet the Milkshake machines don't work though.
No, the UK is not trying to ban end-to-end encryption entirely, but it is pushing for access to encrypted data, particularly to combat child sexual abuse
The government issued an order to Apple in January 2025 requiring them to create a backdoor into encrypted cloud storage for UK users. Critics argue this would create a vulnerability for all users, not just the intended targets.
August 2025 indicated the UK government was dropping the mandate against Apple. As a result, Apple began to its Advanced Data Protection feature for new users in the UK.
This was always going to be a directed court ordered per case basis... not a magic button into anyones phone live and Apple would have had to have released the data.
David Cameron wanted to end e2e but he was a numpty and didn't undertand what it even meant. Interviews showed how clueless he was about the tech.
Thank you for replying. I've long said the judicial system is the only thing holding the Constitution together with the current administration (and the previous version of it). However, speculating on 'unrealistic theories' goes both ways. I cited specific examples of the administration defending encryption (UK negotiations, Signal usage). Do you have concrete examples of them doing the opposite, or just a general distrust of their motives? I am specifically looking for policy actions that contradict my examples. If there are instances where the Trump administration's DOJ or Executive Branch attacked encryption protocols, I would genuinely like to read about them.
Court issued warrants and search powers issued on reasonable grounds aren't the concern.
But I don't think there is a misreport. The UK Govt is using the Investigatory Powers Act to try to force Apple to redesign iCloud ADP to allow for backdoor access. Their first attempt was to try to do this worldwide, the second was limited to those in the UK. Suggest reading more about the Investigatory Powers Act, particularly the 2024 amendment and the "Notices regime". Even if the ultimate search itself is limited to judicial warrants, the Act is what the UK Govt is using to try to force companies like Apple to have the backdoor open ready for that warrant. That is the concerning part.
Well you can thank Apple for that unfortunate development. That they could do this clearly without violating anyone’s privacy and no government would ever have the ability to push the boundariesYes, it will. The EU is already working on that...
Chat Control: EU will see your private messages
EU governments have finally agreed on a controversial new law that gives a backdoor to reading text messages and viewing photo messages
Apple Outlines Security and Privacy of CSAM Detection System in New Document
Apple today shared a document that provides a more detailed overview of the child safety features that it first announced last week, including design principles, security and privacy requirements, and threat model considerations.
www.macrumors.com
This is not surprising. Why should they trust any apps coming from western countries? I’m sure the US government has backdoors into every messaging app on Apple or Google devices.
They don’t want the US government snooping in on their citizens devices.
This is no different than the US forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok.
They don’t want the US government snooping in on their citizens devices.
This is no different than the US forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok.
I didn’t try to argue! Sorry for not framing the response in better manner. I just added that it is not so simple. Indeed, Russian govt is paranoid to its bones. There so many variables it might be hard to actually pinpoint what is their main goal. It is obviously done for total control. However I don’t know what’s the effectiveness of these tactics since they already have made their local Internet cluster where bot armies would spread state propaganda, and whenever they hear opinion different from their own, they will respond like “take a pan off your head” (as if they were hinting that someone who is writing opinion is not from Russia).
They have been pushing that since 2014 at least, while opposition was nullified much earlier. Most western companies didn’t comply with their draconian demands, and FOR GOOD! Or else we would have had “whatsapp unlockers” all over the darkweb already.
P.S: not Russian but Eastern European, so I kind of know their political landscape