In Russia, WeChat is no more. According to a story by the South China Morning Post, the popular Chinese social media app was blocked by the country’s telecom watchdog Roskomnadzor for failing to register with the relevant authorities.
The announcement, which was released May 5, cites article 15.4 of the law, which instructs sanctions for failing to release the responsibilities of coordinators of online information dissemination. That was a mouthful, right? In layman’s terms: the ban is the result of violating Russia’s information provider registration rules.
Roskomnadzor, more formally known as (warning: it’s another mouthful) the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, reportedly took WeChat offline in the country on May 4.
Tencent, WeChat’s Shenzhen-based parent company, is currently communicating with Russian authorities over the ban.
For the woefully unaware: WeChat is China’s most prominent and largest-by-numbers social media application, boasting 889 million active users at the end of 2016.
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