Internet loopholes: Russia struggles to block restricted online resources

RuNet’s traffic filtering tools, used by Russia’s media regulator Roskomnadzor to restrict access to banned online resources, are overloaded and unable to fully enforce blocks, Forbes Russia reported on Wednesday.

As a result, some previously restricted platforms, including Whatsapp, owned by Meta, which has been designated an extremist organisation and banned in Russia, occasionally become accessible. Some users have also reported intermittent access to YouTube, which has been blocked in Russia.

According to Forbes, Roskomnadzor lacks the bandwidth to process all Russian Internet traffic and completely block certain resources. Its technical countermeasures system (TSPU) acts as a filtering mechanism across telecom operators, but the equipment has bandwidth limitations. When the traffic exceeds capacity, the system can switch to a bypass mode.

The temporary availability of blocked resources may also be linked to the reallocation of TSPU capacity to slow down Telegram, Leonid Konika, a partner at Comnews Research, told Forbes.

If filtering systems fail, they can switch to a “skip without filters” mode, a source working in IT security at a large company told Forbes, allowing users to access websites that have long been blocked.

Roskomnadzor has denied any issues with its blocking systems. A representative told independent Russian media outlet Podyom that the reports “do not correspond with reality,” but did not explain why some restricted resources periodically become available.