Russian telecommunications watchdog Roskomnadzor has blocked access to Apple's FaceTime video conferencing platform and the Snapchat instant messaging service, claiming they're being used to coordinate terrorist attacks.
Roskomnadzor said that the two platforms are also being used to recruit criminals and to commit fraud and various other crimes targeting Russian citizens.
"According to law enforcement agencies, the FaceTime service is used to organize and carry out terrorist attacks in the country, recruit their perpetrators, commit fraudulent and other crimes against our citizens," it said in a Thursday statement.
While it didn't announce it until today, the Russian telecom regulator said that Snapchat had been blocked on October 10, "in accordance with the rules of centralized management of the public communication network."
As of this month, Snapchat for Android has been downloaded over 1 billion times on the Google Play Store, while the iOS version has over 5.2 million ratings on Apple's App Store. FaceTime is Apple's proprietary videotelephony platform that comes preinstalled on the company's iOS and macOS devices.
Apple and Snap spokespersons were not immediately available for comment when contacted by BleepingComputer earlier today.
On Wednesday, Roskomnadzor also banned the Roblox online gaming platform for allegedly failing to stop the distribution of what the Russian watchdog described as LGBT propaganda and extremist materials.
Russian news agency Interfax also reported on Friday that Russia is planning to ban Meta's WhatsApp messaging platform, which is now being used by over 3 billion people worldwide.
One year ago, Roskomnadzor blocked the Viber encrypted messaging app, used by hundreds of millions, for violating the country's anti-extremism and anti-terrorism legislation, months after blocking access to the Signal encrypted messaging service for the same reason.
In March 2023, it also banned government and state agencies from using foreign private messaging platforms, including Discord, Microsoft Teams, Telegram, Threema, Viber, WhatsApp, and WeChat, claiming that the service had failed to remove "misinformation" from their platforms.