Russian companies received a ban on the use of foreign messengers

March 1, 2023 entered into force law “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection”, which prohibits the use of foreign messengers by some Russian companies.

According to the new rules, the use of foreign messengers is prohibited for those companies that perform a government task or provide public services. In addition, the law prohibits the transfer of payment information and information that may contain personal data of Russians in these messengers. The ban applies to state-owned companies, companies with state participation above 50%, and financial institutions.

IN list banned messengers included such services as DiscordMicrosoft Teams, Skype for Business, Snapchat, Telegram, Threema, Viber, WhatsApp and WeChat.

“We ask Russian organizations to take into account the new circumstances when planning their activities,” the message on the Roskomnadzor website says.