Viber

The creators of the Viber application, which is used by about 800 million people in the world, are called Talmon Marco and Igor Magazinnik. Both are citizens of Israel, but Magazinnik also has a second citizenship - Belarusian. In January 2017, at the opening of the Belarusian-Egyptian business forum in the capital, Egypt Cairo President of the Republic Belarus Alexander Lukashenko spoke about his activities states in the field of high technologies, he said Telegraf.by. And in particular, he indicated that the popular Viber messenger is a Belarusian development. One of Viber's development centers is located Minsk in and is registered as a resident of the High Technology Park. Viber Media has been owned by the giant since 2014 Japanese , and the Rakuten company's headquarters are located in, it has Luxembourg development points in and. Belarus Israel

Viber is a service for exchanging text, voice and video messages used for communication by people around the world. Free. Users can send free text messages, funny stickers, photos, videos and doodles, share location, make free calls in HD quality and communicate using the Push-To-Talk feature.

Since one of the creators of Viber, Talmon Marco, is from Israel, the messenger has problems in the markets of Egypt and Lebanon. Egyptian authorities have banned military personnel and their families from using the messenger because they consider it a spy app. The main 3G provider in Lebanon has excluded Viber from the network altogether. This did not reduce its popularity - Arab sites post detailed instructions on how to bypass bans.

History

2020: History of development over 10 years

As of December 2020, Viber has almost 400 employees.

2018:1 billion users

In December 2018, the Viber administration, summing up the results of the outgoing year, announced an increase in the number of messenger users to 1 billion. That is how many people are registered in the service, which turned 8 in 2018.

Thus, Viber took 8 years to overcome the 1 billion participant mark. For comparison, WhatsApp has submitted this milestone in 7 years - a billionth audience was recorded in February 2016, and the service started working in early 2009.

Viber audience reaches 1 billion users in 8 years

It is noted that in 2018 Viber has become more convenient to use, more functional and safer. Thus, several new functions were launched, such as groups with an unlimited number of users, a built-in translator of messages from any language, as well as the ability to share geoposition thanks to cooperation with the Yandex.Maps service.

Viber added an additional protocol to protect the youngest users aged 13 years (the minimum age of use of the application) to 16 years. Their names and avatars are not shown in chatbots and communities, their data cannot be used for advertising.

All calls and messages in the Viber messenger are protected using end-to-end encryption, and no one except the participants in the conversation can access them. Viber does not copy messages or store information on its servers. If the sender decides to delete the sent message, then it is also erased on all devices.

In addition, the Viber message declares support for advanced functionality to enhance privacy. We are talking about hidden chats with password access, secret correspondence with the ability to send self-destructing messages, as well as online status settings that allow you to hide your online presence from others.^[1]

Business in Russia

2024: Blocking in Russia

On December 13, 2024, Roskomnadzor limited access to the popular Viber messenger in the Russian Federation. The reason is a violation of the requirements of Russian legislation for the organizers of the dissemination of information.

We are talking about the requirements, the fulfillment of which "is necessary to prevent threats of using the messenger for terrorist and extremist purposes, recruiting citizens to commit them, selling drugs, as well as in connection with the placement of illegal information." The blocking of Viber is stated in the Telegram channel of Roskomnadzor.

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Freepik

Anton Nemkin, a member of the Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications, notes that Viber is often used by cybercriminals to carry out fraudulent schemes. Viber allows you to exchange messages, calls and multimedia content "without having to confirm your identity through strict security systems," he said. It is said that the ease of registering by phone number allows criminals to quickly create new accounts to change their profile and organize a new wave of attacks. At the same time, Nemkin emphasizes, Viber makes it possible to maintain a high level of confidentiality.

Foreign intelligence agencies can use Viber to recruit people, as this messenger allows anonymous and safe contact with potential candidates. Encryption of messages in Viber minimizes the risk of interception of correspondence, which makes this channel convenient for this kind of operation, says Nemkin.

Alexander Malkevich, a member of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, told TASS that the problems with Viber are systemic. According to him, Viber demonstrates a "chronic inability to comply with the requirements of the law," which in itself looks "like a strategy of conflict, not cooperation." ^[2]

2023: Fine for refusing to remove false information about a military operation

On June 20, 2023, Viber was first fined for refusing to remove false information about Russia's special military operation in Ukraine. The company will have to pay 1 million rubles.

To recognize Viber Media S.a r.l as guilty of committing an administrative offense under Part 2 of Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation (failure by the owner of the site to remove information or an Internet page if the obligation to remove such information, the Internet page is provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation), - leads TASS the decision of the magistrate of the judicial district number 422 of the Tagansky district in Moscow, which considered the protocol on an administrative offense.

Viber fined 1 million rubles

According to the case file, Viber was charged with failure to remove six notifications from Roskomnadzor of various communities and information from them containing inaccurate information about Russia's special military operation in Ukraine, as well as the number of losses and casualties among military personnel and civilians.

The lawyer asked not to hold the messenger accountable, as Viber "did everything possible and technically available to remove and block communities."

In addition, this is the first protocol, and the company does not intend to violate the laws of the Russian Federation, - said the representative of the defendant (quoted by RIA Novosti).

She also stressed that the company removed information from the search in Russia, besides, it was in Ukrainian and was not intended for Russian users. In addition, according to her, there are no technical capabilities to remove all communities, you can only remove them from the search. In addition, after the first notification, the messenger blocked the groups.

The article, which was imputed to the messenger, provides for administrative punishment in the form of a fine from 800 thousand to 4 million rubles.^[3]

2022: Opening of a representative office in Russia

On January 17, 2022, Viber announced the opening of a representative office in Russia. With this step, the messenger fulfilled the requirement of the law on the activities of Internet companies in the Russian Federation - in accordance with it, foreign online services with a daily audience of more than 500 thousand users must open their authorized offices in Russia. In addition, they are obliged to place a form for feedback from Russian users and organizations. 13 companies, including Viber, fell under the requirements of the law.

Until January 17, 2022, Viber did not have a legal entity in Russia, the company noted. The messaging service also registered a personal account on the site Roskomnadzor under the same "landing" law.

Viber opened a representative office in Russia

By January 18, 2022, in addition to Viber, the Singapore short video exchange service, the American Likee TikTok corporation, opened its personal account on the Roskomnadzor website. Apple Companies ignoring new obligations face complete or partial blocking in, RuNet exclusion from search results, a ban on advertising in Russia, restriction of money transfers and acceptance of payments, as well as a ban on the collection and cross-border transfer of personal data.

According to Denis Kuskov, head of the TelecomDaily information and analytical agency, the landing of traffic cannot lead to the fact that law enforcement agencies have more data on Russians. The expert believes that in the future large companies will begin cooperation with Roskomnadzor, but this is not a Russian invention.

In many countries of the world, understanding the transnational structure of the largest companies, there are processes related to fines against these companies, so such a landing will take place not only in Russia, but also in other countries, "said Kuskov.[4]

2017: Viber goes to Russia

In July 2017, it became known that the Viber messenger intends to open a representative office in Russia. Lawyers for the company are already looking into local legislation to understand how best to register an office. In the near future, the management should finally decide on this. This was announced to the RNS news agency by the general director of the company, Djamel Agaoua, who took office in February 2017. The shareholder has already approved the opening of Viber's representative office in Russia^[5].

The final dates for the opening of the Agaua representative office are not undertaken to determine. According to him, Viber intends to comply with all the standards that are established in Russia for instant messengers. 'You understand, we're not hiding from anyone. But it is too early to talk about the timing, "RNS quoted him as saying

As of autumn 2017, Viber has an audience of 82 million in Russia.

2015: Viber moved servers to Russia

On October 19, 2015, it became known that the Viber instant messaging service moved its servers, which store the data of Russian users, to the territory of the Russian Federation. Thus, the company complied with the law prohibiting the storage and processing of data of Russians abroad. For more information, see the Viber Out Instant Messaging Service questionnaire.

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