Russia’s internet watchdog agency Roskomnadzor warns that laws banning the use of many foreign private messaging applications in Russian government and state agencies came into force today. The law is “On information, information technology, and information protection,” specifically Part 8-10 of Article 10, which prohibits Russian agencies from using information exchange systems owned by foreign entities. “The law establishes a ban for a number of Russian organizations on the use of foreign messengers (information systems and computer programs owned by foreign persons that are designed and (or) used for exchanging messages exclusively between their users, in which the sender determines the recipients of messages and does not provide for placement by Internet users publicly available information on the Internet),” warns Roskomnadzor. The banned services mentioned by Roskomnadzor include the following: Discord, Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Snapchat, Telegram, Threema, Viber, WhatsApp, and WeChat Interestingly, the California-based “Zoom,” isn’t on Roskomnadzor’s list. Likewise, the encrypted messaging service “Signal” is not mentioned in the list. The Russian state has previously demanded that some of the above products, including Discord and Telegram, remove “misinformation” from their platforms. However, the current ban does not appear to be an effort to curb the influx of foreign information that could shape the opinion of the local population, but rather a precaution to prevent leaks of sensitive information to foreign entities.