Faced with censorship, Russians seek alternatives to WhatsApp and Telegram in South Korean chats

Moscow .- Russians are looking for alternatives to WhatsApp and Telegram in South Korean chats in order not to download the application promoted by the Kremlin, MAX, supervised by the security forces. The South Korean application KakaoTalk is the fifth most downloaded application in the App Store of Russia, while in the Android catalog it occupies the number 28 position, although just a few days ago it did not even appear among the top 100. The application's main market is South Korea, where it was launched in 2010, and it works as a super-app that encompasses multiple services such as payments, taxi, messaging, and state administrative procedures.

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Users claim that the application currently works without restrictions in Russia, where the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) has become widespread to circumvent the blocks on Western applications imposed as a result of the 2022 war in Ukraine.

KakaoTalk

KakaoTalk offers a Russian interface, although some users have reported errors. To register from a Russian number, it is necessary to send an SMS to a foreign number. The application is registered on the list of the Russian state agency Roskomnadzor, which includes communication companies, which are obliged to store their users' correspondence for six months and periodically provide it to the Russian authorities if requested. Last year, Russian authorities began blocking the internet and the messaging networks WhatsApp and Telegram, the latter of which could be completely blocked on April 1, according to media reports. The recent cuts, of up to three weeks, in the center of Moscow and the blocking campaign against Telegram have aroused citizen displeasure, even among the most patriotic. The Kremlin intensified its censorship with the start of its campaign in Ukraine, increasingly restricting access to unofficial information and persecuting any manifestation of dissent and opposition to the war.