Viber

Viber was not a niche app in Russia. According to Mediascope data cited by the state news agency TASS, about 26% of Russians aged 12 and over used it each month, and 14% opened it every day. That reach did not protect it. On 13 December 2024, Roskomnadzor blocked Viber across the country, and it has stayed blocked since.

Roskomnadzor’s reason

The regulator said the block was needed to stop Viber being used for terrorist and extremist purposes, for recruiting people into crimes and for selling drugs, and because of illegal information posted on it. That is almost the same wording it used for Signal in August 2024 and Discord in October 2024, which made Viber the third chat app cut off in under five months.

Fines came first

As with other foreign apps, the ban followed fines totalling about 1.8 million roubles:

• June 2023: Viber’s first fine in Russia, 1 million roubles, for not removing content about the war in Ukraine that Russia called “false”.
• 13 March 2024: Moscow’s Tagansky District Court added 800,000 roubles for publishing banned content.
• 13 December 2024: access blocked nationwide.

An owner that took sides

Viber belongs to Japan’s Rakuten Group, which bought it in 2014 for $900 million. After Russia’s full-scale invasion, Rakuten’s chief executive Hiroshi Mikitani said openly that Viber would block Russian propaganda. “We’re going to block all these fake news and propaganda of Russia,” he told Reuters during a visit to Kyiv. Rakuten did not immediately comment on the block.

Is Viber still blocked in Russia?

Yes. In February 2026, Amnesty International still listed Viber among the messengers Russia had blocked, alongside Signal. Since then, Russia has gone further, blocking WhatsApp in February 2026 as it pushes people toward the state-backed messenger Max. The rest of the list is in our guide to apps blocked in Russia.