The rate of failed attempts to access the Telegram messaging app in Russia reached a record 95% on Friday morning, according to data published by the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI) and reported by Agentstvo.
According to this data, this is the highest failure rate since the Russian authorities began intensifying their blockade of Telegram earlier this year. The day before, failures had been recorded at 79%, a level that is already considered the “new normal” in recent days.
The blocking hasn't just affected Telegram. Other messaging apps like Signal, officially banned in Russia, and WhatsApp, which is considered effectively blocked, have seen a failure rate of 89%.
Meanwhile, users have reported numerous problems on outage monitoring platforms Detector404 and Sboy.rf. According to the data, Detector404 recorded about 3,600 complaints over 24 hours, including 806 reports within a single hour, reflecting the widespread scale of the outages.
Even users using VPNs appear to have been affected. The Netherlands ranked third in terms of the number of complaints, behind major Russian cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The Sboy.rf platform reported 1,026 complaints by noon on Friday, compared to 1,771 for the entire previous day. The bulk of the reports came from Moscow, St. Petersburg, as well as the Sverdlovsk and Novosibirsk regions.
The data suggests a further tightening of internet control in Russia, significantly limiting access to major online communication platforms.
The GeoPost
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