Both Russia and Venezuela have blocked access to the encrypted messaging app Signal. The Russian news service broke the news about the block on the Signal app in Russia, with Russia’s telecommunications watchdog citing violations of Russian legislation as the reason for the restriction. Meanwhile, cybersecurity tracker NetBlocks confirmed that Russia has restricted access to Signal on most internet providers. In Venezuela, the blocking of Signal follows disputed presidential election results, with protests erupting. Both regions have been cutting off access to similar social media apps, possibly to silence dissenting voices, as evidenced by President Maduro of Venezuela banning another social media app for 10 days. Additionally, there was a reported mass YouTube outage in Russia.
