Russian authorities have escalated their campaign to control the country's digital landscape, implementing a block on the social media app Snapchat and imposing new restrictions on Apple's video calling service, FaceTime.
Regulator Cites Terrorism and Crime as Justification
The state internet watchdog, Roskomnadzor, announced the measures on Thursday, although it stated that action against Snapchat was actually taken back on 10 October. In an official statement, the regulator claimed both platforms were being exploited to "organise and conduct terrorist activities" within Russia, as well as to recruit for such acts, commit fraud, and target citizens with other crimes.
Neither Apple nor Snap Inc., Snapchat's parent company, provided an immediate comment in response to enquiries about the restrictions.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Digital Control
This move represents the latest step in a concerted, multi-year effort by the Kremlin to rein in the internet. Since President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia has progressively restricted or blocked access to major foreign tech platforms.
The list of previously targeted services is extensive and includes:
- Meta's WhatsApp and Instagram
- Google's YouTube, which experienced deliberate throttling last year
- The Telegram messaging service, despite its Russian origins
- Encrypted messenger Signal and the app Viber in 2024
Authorities have also promoted a domestic alternative, a "national" messenger called Max. Critics view this platform as a tool for surveillance, as it openly states it will share user data with authorities and reportedly lacks end-to-end encryption.
Technical Enforcement and Wider Implications
Russian law classifies any platform enabling user messaging as an "organiser of dissemination of information." This classification mandates that companies register with Roskomnadzor and grant the FSB security service access to user accounts for monitoring purposes. Failure to comply results in blocking.
Stanislav Seleznev, a cyber security expert and lawyer with the Net Freedom rights group, explained this legal mechanism. He estimated that tens of millions of Russians had turned to FaceTime, especially after calls were banned on WhatsApp and Telegram. Seleznev called the FaceTime restrictions "predictable" and warned that other non-compliant sites "will be blocked – that's obvious."
While some tech-savvy users circumvent blocks using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), these services are also routinely targeted and blocked by the authorities. Further control was exerted this summer through widespread shutdowns of mobile internet, officially to thwart drone attacks but seen by experts as another control measure.
In a related development earlier this week, the government also announced a block on the popular online game platform Roblox, citing the protection of children from illicit content. According to Mediascope, Roblox was the second most popular game platform in Russia in October, with close to 8 million monthly users.
