Russia bans WhatsApp
Marketplace Morning Report
Marketplace
4.5 • 927 Ratings
🗓️ 12 February 2026
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From the BBC World Service: Russia has ordered a block on WhatsApp, the Kremlin confirmed. The app has more than 100 million users in Russia, who have now been cut off from the platform, and the Russian government is pushing users to download Max, Russia's state-owned messaging platform. Then, China’s carbon dioxide emissions fell by 0.3% in 2025, the first full year to show a decline. And, as summers get hotter, Europeans are looking to "coolcation" in colder climes.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Programming is supported by prescription landscape, serving commercial clients across the Twin Cities since 1980, with grounds care, hardscaping, interior scoping, and tree care. Learn more at rxlandscape.com. |
| 0:14.0 | Russia blocks WhatsApp. Live from the UK, this is the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Nick |
| 0:21.3 | Koreshi. The Kremlin has confirmed to the BBC that Russia has ordered a block on WhatsApp. |
| 0:27.1 | The app, which is owned by Meta, has more than 100 million users in Russia who have now been |
| 0:31.7 | cut off from the platform. The BBC's Nick Marsh has been following this for us. Hi, Nick. |
| 0:35.7 | Hello. So what do we know? |
| 0:45.3 | Well, back in 2022, META was listed as a terrorist organization in Russia. It's being that way ever since. It has a lot to do with the war in Ukraine, the fact that META was allowing anti-Russian |
| 0:51.7 | posts on its platforms and there was a disagreement there. |
| 0:55.1 | So ever since then, Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Metov, have effectively been blocked in Russia. |
| 1:02.3 | WhatsApp wasn't, though. |
| 1:04.0 | Now it appears that it has been removed from Russia's Internet Regulators' Directory. So that means you've got tens of millions of |
| 1:14.5 | people. WhatsApp says 100 million people effectively cut off from the system overnight. |
| 1:20.1 | So what's Russia's motivation? Well, the authorities in Russia for quite some time now have been |
| 1:26.8 | quite actively trying to push people away from messaging |
| 1:30.4 | apps like WhatsApp and onto this rival app, which is called Max. It's a domestic app. It's modeled on |
| 1:37.1 | WeChat in China, so you can do lots of different things on it. You can pay for services. It's got |
| 1:43.6 | government portals embedded in it, |
| 1:46.1 | but this is the important bit. WhatsApp is end-to-end encrypted. Lots of messaging apps are. It means |
| 1:51.5 | you can't access what people are saying. Max, the domestic app, it's not end-to-end encrypted. |
| 1:57.6 | The argument that the Russian authorities give is that these companies, |
| 2:01.2 | they refuse to hand over the data of users, but the platforms say, well, that's exactly why people |
| 2:06.2 | use them. And now, as things stand, it appears that tens of millions of people won't be able |
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