Outages in Max Messenger and Apple services in Russia: What's known
In Russia, widespread technical outages have been reported in the national messaging app Max and Apple services. Users in various regions are reporting an inability to send messages and the App Store is unavailable. Against this backdrop, experts are predicting possible changes to the blocking of other popular platforms.
Problems with national software and the American ecosystem
The Max messenger has experienced a serious outage. Numerous complaints about the national messenger are currently being recorded in various regions of Russia, according to up-to-date data from the services Sboy.rf and DownDetector404. Users are complaining en masse about the inability to send text messages and download any media files.
Furthermore, Russians are reporting a parallel outage in the App Store and the complete inaccessibility of Apple's official website. Roskomnadzor, however, quickly assured that it had not imposed any restrictions.
Network anomalies and OONI project statistics
According to the international research project OONI, the number of abnormal connections to Apple resources in Russia began to increase as early as July 16. Specifically, over the next few days, site availability dropped to approximately 30–40%. For the App Store, this figure is currently around 60%.
However, other countries don't have such access issues. NeMoskva journalists located in various regions of Russia also have no complaints about the availability of Apple services.
Telegram's Prospects Amid App Store Removals
Current problems could ultimately lead to unexpected political decisions. The popular messaging app Telegram may be unblocked in Russia before the elections, stated Vladimir Zykov, director of the Association of Professional Users of Social Networks and Messengers.
Therefore, this statement was no coincidence. It came against the backdrop of the recent removal of Max and VKontakte from the App Store and Google Play. We added this context to illustrate the connection between the blocking of Russian software abroad and a possible change in policy at home.
