Putin blocks Russians’ access to Facebook, Twitter, app stores [Updated]

Update 2:40pm EST: Russia's Internet censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, confirmed that it would be blocking access to Facebook, accusing the company of violating the law by blocking state media outlets from the platform.

When reached for comment by Ars, a Facebook spokesperson cited a statement from Nick Clegg, president of global affairs, who said, "We will continue to do everything we can to restore our services so they remain available to people to safely and securely express themselves and organize for action."

Original article: Russia is reportedly blocking Twitter, Facebook, various news sites, and major app stores, according to a German journalist.

The move comes after the Russian government announced last week that it was partially restricting access to Facebook in retaliation for the company applying fact-checking labels to posts from state-controlled media outlets. Earlier this week, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, and YouTube blocked access to Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik in the European Union.

The news of Russia’s blockade came from Mathieu von Rohr, head of the foreign desk at German newsmagazine Der Spiegel. He tweeted that “Twitter, Facebook, BBC, Deutsche Welle, App Stores” were all being blocked. (Deutsche Welle is the German public broadcaster.)

Putin has long sought to control the Internet inside Russia’s borders in much the same way that the Communist Party does within China. Yet, Russia’s attempts to censor the Internet aren’t as sophisticated and haven’t been as sweeping or effective as China’s Great Firewall, instead relying on regulatory harassment, occasional throttling, and government takeovers. For example, VK, the parent company of Russian social media network VKontakte, was recently taken over by Gazprom, the state-owned natural gas company.

Whether Russia’s attempts to censor the Internet will succeed remains to be seen. Compared with China, the country is late to the game, and it doesn’t have the market size to recreate the range of products and services offered by companies like Meta, Apple, or Google. Any efforts to start beefing up capabilities now will face stiff headwinds as Western sanctions begin to bite, with Russian companies unable to obtain advanced chips for computers, telecommunications, and more.

Ars has contacted Meta, Twitter, Apple, and Google to confirm whether their services are still available inside Russia. We will update this article if we hear back.

Update 12:43 EST: After publication, Ars commenter Artem S. Tashkinov said that connections to Facebook and Twitter were timing out in Russia, even when using a VPN, but that Instagram and Google Play remained accessible via the same route.

Previously, Ukraine had asked Apple to remove the App Store from the Russian market. Apple didn’t accede, but it did remove RT News and Sputnik News from the App Store outside Russia. The company also stopped selling products within the country. An Apple spokesperson said the move was in response to the invasion, though Western companies face myriad hurdles to selling in Russia, including problems processing credit card payments, uncertainties around importing products, and rising inflation in the country. Previously, Apple has temporarily suspended product sales in countries like Turkey where inflation has significantly devalued the currency.

Since President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian government has been pushing an avalanche of pro-Kremlin propaganda, spreading disinformation about the course of the invasion, casualty figures, and more. Not that this is any different from before—RT and Sputnik have long offered audiences a skewed, if not outright false, view of world events, one that hews to Putin’s party line.

Social media companies have been slow to respond to the war in Ukraine, appearing to fall back on their default “neutral” status and leaving their platforms open to state media companies. Even today, Sputnik and RT and its affiliated channels remain on YouTube outside of the EU, though Google has removed their ability to make money so as to comply with sanctions. Perhaps as a result, RT America ceased production yesterday, though its videos are still available on YouTube.

But, as the war drags on, civilian casualties mount, and Russia places even greater pressure on Western companies, social media platforms will likely be forced to decide whether their markets-first ideology will serve them in the long run. Since their advent, platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been able to thread the needle, doing just enough to stay in hostile markets without risking government probes or catastrophic consumer backlashes in Western markets. 

That era may be swiftly coming to a close, though, as a Cyber Curtain begins to take shape amid Putin’s efforts to relitigate the end of the Cold War.