<\/p>\n
On\u00a0July 18, the Russian authorities made it\u00a0clear that they plan to\u00a0block the nation\u2019s\u00a0most popular messaging platform, WhatsApp. State Duma deputy Anton Gorelkin warned that the decision is\u00a0imminent, and Meduza\u2019s\u00a0sources in\u00a0the government confirmed that a\u00a0ban on\u00a0WhatsApp \u2014 which nearly 80 percent of\u00a0Russians use \u2014 is\u00a0a\u00a0near certainty<\/a>. This would hardly be\u00a0Russia\u2019s\u00a0first attempt to\u00a0block a\u00a0popular online service. A\u00a0decade ago, when federal regulators targeted piracy websites like Flibusta and RuTracker, the official rationale for censorship was to\u00a0defend intellectual property rights. Today, the authorities justify their actions on\u00a0national security grounds. Meduza looks back at\u00a0some of\u00a0Russia\u2019s\u00a0most sweeping Internet censorship efforts in\u00a0the past 10 years.<\/p>\n \u2018There\u2019s\u00a0a\u00a099-percent chance it\u00a0will happen\u2019 Meduza\u2019s\u00a0Kremlin sources say Russia is\u00a0poised to\u00a0ban WhatsApp in\u00a0a\u00a0bid to\u00a0quell discontent<\/a>\u2018There\u2019s\u00a0a\u00a099-percent chance it\u00a0will happen\u2019 Meduza\u2019s\u00a0Kremlin sources say Russia is\u00a0poised to\u00a0ban WhatsApp in\u00a0a\u00a0bid to\u00a0quell discontent<\/a>\u2193<\/p>\n The authorities block RuTracker<\/a>, Russia\u2019s\u00a0most popular torrent tracker, and Flibusta<\/a>, a\u00a0shadow library and digital book-sharing site.<\/p>\n \u2193<\/p>\n Russia blocks LinkedIn<\/a>, the world\u2019s\u00a0largest social network for professional contacts, job searching, and employee recruitment.<\/p>\n \u2193<\/p>\n Russia blocks Telegram, or\u00a0rather, the authorities attempt to\u00a0block it, but not very successfully. In\u00a02020, the government lifted its ban on\u00a0Telegram, declaring that the platform was ready to\u00a0\u201ccounter terrorism and extremism.\u201d<\/p>\n Telegram\u2019s abandoned legal battle How Pavel Durov walked away from a landmark case against Russian censorship at Europe\u2019s highest human rights court<\/a>Telegram\u2019s abandoned legal battle How Pavel Durov walked away from a landmark case against Russian censorship at Europe\u2019s highest human rights court<\/a>\u2193<\/p>\n Russia\u2019s\u00a0federal media regulator, Roskomnadzor, begins targeting the popular anonymous browser Tor<\/a>. Soon, officials start blocking VPN services (eventually banning them by\u00a0the dozens).<\/p>\n \u2193<\/p>\n With the full-scale invasion of\u00a0Ukraine, Russia blocks Facebook and Instagram. For years, the authorities had been throttling Twitter\u2019s\u00a0speed; they now block it\u00a0outright. Chess.com<\/a>, the largest online chess platform, and Patreon, the paid subscription platform, are also blocked. Google News becomes inaccessible (along with Russian independent media outlets).<\/p>\n \u2193<\/p>\n Russia blocks Viber, Discord, and the secure, privacy-focused messaging app Signal. In\u00a0some regions, mobile Internet outages become more frequent, and officials lay the groundwork for blocking WhatsApp and Telegram. YouTube is\u00a0throttled<\/a> to\u00a0the point of\u00a0being effectively blocked. Ficbook<\/a>, the largest Russian-language fanfiction website, becomes inaccessible.<\/p>\n \u2193<\/p>\n Sites using Cloudflare\u2019s\u00a0cloud service (which enables circumvention of\u00a0Russian censorship without the need for VPNs) begin experiencing failures. Internet connectivity is\u00a0routinely disrupted across most regions (both cellular and fixed-line networks). State Duma officials announce plans to\u00a0block WhatsApp, the nation\u2019s\u00a0leading messaging platform.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On\u00a0July 18, the Russian authorities made it\u00a0clear that they plan to\u00a0block the nation\u2019s\u00a0most popular messaging platform, WhatsApp. State…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":81143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[712,158,67,132,68,1796,1791,1794,1783,1776,1788,1778,1789,1795,1784,1772,1779,1773,1781,1782,1774,1777,1775,1793,1787,1780,1792,1790,1786,1785],"class_list":{"0":"post-81142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-internet","8":"tag-internet","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-1796","14":"tag-1791","15":"tag-1794","16":"tag-1783","17":"tag-1776","18":"tag-1788","19":"tag-1778","20":"tag-1789","21":"tag-1795","22":"tag-1784","23":"tag-1772","24":"tag-1779","25":"tag-1773","26":"tag-1781","27":"tag-1782","28":"tag-1774","29":"tag-1777","30":"tag-1775","31":"tag-1793","32":"tag-1787","33":"tag-1780","34":"tag-1792","35":"tag-1790","36":"tag-1786","37":"tag-1785"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114892367857818684","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}