Russia cracks down on Zello walkie-talkie app amid ongoing war

First, then, then, then, and now... Zello?

On Sunday, the Russian federal agency responsible for censoring the media and internet announced it was moving to a limit. According to an official press release, the Texas company failed to prevent discussion of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on its platform.

On March 4, the administration of the American internet resource Zello received a request to stop sending messages to users that contain false information about the course of a special operation of the Russian Federation.

Zello allows users to create voice discussion channels of up to 7,000 people, which can be used to chat with each other in real time. This feature came in handy when Zello users attempted to coordinate aid in response to Hurricane Irma and when rioters used Zello to enter the U.S. Capitol building.

Russians using Zello inside the country seem to have run afoul of official government censors.

An example of a Zello channel. Credit: Screenshot: Zello

Zello offers an end-to-end chat feature. No one, not even Zello, can listen in on those conversations. The public channels are open to the public and searchable.

We reached out to Zello to find out what effect this limiting of its app in Russia has had on its service. We asked the company if they had any response to the announcement. We did not receive an immediate response.

This is not the first time the Russian government has tried to limit Zello. Zello said that officials tried to block the app when it failed to comply with a demand to store user data in Russia.

Zello would have to give law enforcement with the means of surveilling Zello conversations globally and would have to share all Zello encryption keys with the Russian state security organization, according to Zello's response at the time.

In Russia, Zello had 400,000 users.

As Russia moves to crack down in the country on online communication platforms like Facebook, and now Zello, the value of a secure, and private, communication tool, like Signal, which saw a spike in use in Ukraine as Russia invaded, or Zello, is more important than ever.