NewsRescue
According to a Meta representative, Russian users of Meta’s WhatsApp messenger will not be able to use a new feature that would allow them to create and view media channels.
“The product will not be available to users within Russia anytime soon,” the representative stated, adding that the feature will be available in 150 countries.
WhatsApp characterised ‘Channels’ in a blog post in June as “a one-way broadcast tool for admins to send text, photos, videos, stickers, and polls” to their followers. Celebrities, sports teams, artists, innovators, and “thought leaders” have been invited to use the new tool.
According to the Moscow Times, Meta decided to scrap the feature in Russia to avoid being blocked in the country, as was done to Facebook and Instagram. Both apps were banned after Meta was designated as an extremist organization for allowing hate speech against Russian nationals and distributing what Moscow deemed to be false information about the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
At the time, lawmakers made an exception for WhatsApp, arguing that the messenger is a means of communication rather than posting information.
Earlier this month, Russia’s media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, and the State Duma threatened to reconsider the exception if the app expands its functionality to become more than a simple messaging platform.
“If the product of the extremist company Meta begins to expand its functionality towards mass dissemination of information, the official position regarding its activities on the territory of the Russian Federation may be revised,” the first deputy head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Anton Gorelkin, said.
