Russia blocks China's social media app WeChat

BEIJING: Russia's telecoms watchdog has blocked China's popular messaging app WeChat for failing to fulfil the country's Internet regulations.

Watchdog Roskomnadzor has listed WeChat, developed by Tencent Technology, on the register of prohibited websites, South China Morning Post reported today.

"Tencent is aware of the move and communicating with Russian authorities over the matter," a brief statement from the Shenzhen-based company said.

Russia requires Internet service providers to register with related government bodies, but Tencent "had a different understanding" on this issue, the company said.

Access to the app was restricted on the basis of Article 15.4 of the law on information, information technologies and information security, according to Roskomnadzor, officially known as the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications.

The article stipulates sanctions for failure to discharge various responsibilities of organisers of information distribution on the Internet, the Hong Kong based daily said.

WeChat is China's most popular mobile social media platform with 889 million active users worldwide by the end of 2016.

China has itself blocked foreign social media, including Facebook and Twitter.