Users in Russia are complaining en masse about problems accessing YouTube and WhatsApp. According to industry experts, the services’ domains have disappeared from the National Domain Name System (NDNS), the state-controlled system used by providers in Russia, Kommersant.ru reported.
As a result, users’ devices have stopped receiving IP addresses for the services, making it possible to access the messenger and video-hosting service in Russia only through a VPN.
According to Habr.ru, Roskomnadzor, the Russian federal service responsible for media control and censorship, may have removed the domains from the system on purpose due to a lack of technical capacity to slow several platforms simultaneously. Therefore, the regulator may have disabled some services via DNS.
Thus, Roskomnadzor’s DNS server database currently does not include YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, among many others. However, only whatsapp.com and web.whatsapp.com have disappeared from the NDNS, while the technical domain whatsapp.net and shortened URLs wa.me still remain in the system.
Russian authorities have also slowed the operation of the Telegram messenger in the country since Feb. 10.
