Russia’s state internet regulator blocked access to 1.289 million online pages last year, a 59% increase from 2024, as authorities expanded monitoring and tightened restrictions on sensitive content.
The biggest increases were seen in materials related to tools for bypassing internet restrictions, which jumped 1,235% to more than 93,000 items, the regulator, Roskomnadzor, told the Vedomosti business daily on Monday.
Content related to LGBTQ+ themes rose 269% to 170,300 cases, while posts linked to alcohol sales increased 190% to over 18,700.
Other categories that saw increased blockings included child pornography (up 131% to 155,600 cases), drug-related content (up 80% to 229,300) and material related to the “involvement of minors in illegal activities” (up 60% to 52,200).
Roskomnadzor’s monitoring covered social networks including VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Moi Mir, Mail.ru Answers, Rutube, TikTok, Likee and Telegram.
The increase is partly because authorities now classify more types of content as illegal, Urvan Parfentiyev, coordinator of the Safe Internet Center, told Vedomosti.
Yelizaveta Belyakova, head of the Alliance for the Protection of Children in the Digital Environment, told Vedomosti that previously ambiguous content like VPN and alcohol ads is now clearly classified as illegal for children.
The increase is also tied to Roskomnadzor’s use of more advanced text analysis, image recognition and predictive analytics tools, said Natalia Tylevich, CEO of Social Laboratory.
Read this story in Russian at The Moscow Times’ Russian service.