OREANDA-NEWS   In Russia, access to the Viber messenger was restricted due to violations of the requirements of the law, Roskomnadzor reported.

"Access to the Viber service is limited due to violation of the requirements of Russian legislation for the organizers of information dissemination," the department explained.

They clarified that it is about preventing threats of using the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes, recruiting citizens, selling drugs, as well as in connection with the posting of illegal information.

As Anton Nemkin, a member of the Duma Committee on information Policy, told RIA Novosti, the amount of fines for the Viber messenger over the past two years has exceeded 1.8 million rubles, they have not yet been paid. The legislator stressed that the company continues to ignore Russian legislation and does not delete prohibited information, including information related to the special operation.

According to the analytical agency TelecomDaily, the number of daily unique Viber users in Russia is about 1.7 million people. For comparison, WhatsApp has 8.1 million, Telegram has 6.4 million.