The Internet is great! But not everyone has access to everything online. In fact, the internet isn’t “world wide” as it calims to be. For instance, if you live in the U.S, your internet experience will be different if you acess it in another country. That’s because every country has a different approach to it . You might be able to acess all your favoite apps or websites, but in many countries, those websites and apps are permenantly blocked. You’re also probably familiar with the extreme internet censorship in North Korea and China, but truth is, intenret censorship is everywhere.
Continue reading to discover why some countries like Russia, Iran, Turkey, and the Middle East block VoIP apps or messaging apps.
Messaging app block in Russia
Let’s start off with Russia, the world’s biggest country and the second largest country for immigration haven. Unfortunetelly, Russia is listed as “Not Free” in freedom house and in fact, Russian authorities ban any communication platforms that refuses to give its state security services access to its users’ secret messages. It all started in 2018 when Russia’s Federal Security service requested access to some messages that includes guarding against terrorist attacks. However, Telegram has refused to comply with the demands, citing respect for user privacy. As a result, the Russian court has ordered to block the access to the Telegram messaging app. Russian authorities demanded to get a universal decryption key from the app but Telegram says there’s no such key.
In a tweet, Telegram founder Pavel Durov wrote the following, “Privacy is not for sale, and human rights should not be compromised out of fear or greed.” Durov is a Russian entrepreneur and is best known for being the founder of the social networking site VK. Later, Durov created the Telegram Messenger.
Messaging app block in Turkey
Ever since 2013, Turkey has been ranked as ” Not Free” on Freedom press. Turkey’s ban on social media is an on/off situation. From time to time, Turkish authorities block social media platforms as well as messaging apps depending on the country’s current political situation. However, the ban gets lifted as soon as things start to calm down. For example in 2016, Turkish government has blocked access to Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Skype, Instagram, throught Turkey. The purpose of the shutdown was to stop the spreading of so called “misinformation” or “false information”.
Just recently, Netblock.org announced on their twitter page that social media platforms — Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger are currently blocked. Whatsapp howeverworks but the trasnfer of image/video content is now limited.
Messaging app block in Iran
Despite being the second country in the Middle East to have internet, today, the Iranian government has an intensive approach to it . Social media such as Facebook, Messenger,Twitter, Youtube and Telegram are permenantly blocked in Iran. Whatsapp and Instagram however, operate normally just like in any other country. Together with Russian, Iran has blocked Telegram permenantly because it refused to give the Iranian authorities access to its users’ secret messages.
Similar to Turkey, Iran blocks social media platform such as Facebook and Twitter to prevent its people from sharing, as they claim to be, “false information”. Moreover, authorities also block or filter any content on the internet that is contradicting the Iranian government. However, Iranians bypass these censorships by downloading and buying VPNs to have access to most of these blocked sites and platforms.
Messaging app block in the Middle East
The blocking of messaging apps in the middle east dates back to 2013. It all started in Saudi Arabia when authorities first banned viber calls for failing to comply local regularity requirments. Soon, the ban was applied on Whatsapp, Messenger, Skype, Imo and other messaging apps. The reason behind the ban is to protect locol telecom operators from revenue losses. Unlike Iran and Turkey, the ban is not applied on social media networks but only on voice and video calling apps.
Other countries in the Middle East such as United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Qatar, ban messaging apps for the same reason. It’s also important to mention that government blocks only specific functions of messaging apps. For instance, texting via Whatsapp and other messaging are not blocked, but only voice and video calls are.
If you’re living in countries where messaging apps are blocked such as in Iran, Russia, Turkey, and the Middle East, you can use Pinngle Messenger to make free voice and video calls anywhere in the world. You can avoid blocking issues simply by using an app like Pinngle messenger in which it has an anti-blocking technology not allowing any governmental authorities to block it. Above all that, it uses strong encryption to secure users’ data and conversation.
Final Remarks
As you can see, many countries are blocking messaging apps. To protect your online privacy and overcome the blocking of apps, you just need to use the right messenger. Download Pinngle Messenger from the Google Play Store or App Store
