
On Wednesday, as many as 100 million Russians abruptly had their access to WhatsApp cut off, according to the Financial Times. Meanwhile, an app called Max that is quite a bit like WhatsApp—though based on the Chinese “everything app” WeChat—has been touted by celebrities, plugged by educators, and preinstalled on mobile devices. Many Russians may have no choice now but to start relying on it, even though it explicitly requires users to allow their activity to be shared with the…

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