Russia's communications watchdog, Roskomnadzor (RKN), has cut off access to the popular messaging platform Viber, citing its failure to remove criminal content. 

Tech news outlet Telecom Daily reports that Viber is used by 17 million unique daily users in Russia. 

In a statement issued on Friday, RKN explained that the platform was blocked for violating national laws intended to prevent its use for activities such as "terrorism and extremism," drug trafficking, and the spread of "illegal information."

A member of the State Duma who sits on the parliamentary information policy and communications committee, Anton Nemkin, told news agency TASS that Viber's owners failed to pay 1.8 million rubles ($17,230) in fines and disregarded Russian laws. The Russian official added that the app "doesn't remove illegal information," which includes content or information related to the war in Ukraine. 

Nemkin argued that “foreign intelligence services” could exploit Viber as a recruitment tool for potential spies. 

Head of the online safety NGO ‘Bely Internet’ (White Internet) and a member of the presidential Human Rights Council, Elina Sidorenko, told Komsomolskaya Pravda that Russians lost 5 billion rubles ($47.8 million) to scammers on Viber.

She added, “Viber failed to protect its users and refused to cooperate with the authorities.”

This is not the first time Moscow has banned social media platforms in recent years. Back in 2022, the Tverskoy district court of Moscow ruled on March 22 to ban Facebook and Instagram in Russia for inciting violence and extremism, according to a Sputnik correspondent. 

The ban on Meta's activities was not intended to apply to WhatsApp.

Upon a Meta request to stop the proceedings in the Moscow court regarding a lawsuit lodged by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office to ban Facebook and Instagram, the Moscow court declined such a request.

In July of the same year, a Russian court fined WhatsApp, Snapchat, and other foreign firms for refusing to store Russian users' data domestically.