Original Material
A brief (and incomplete) history
From anti-piracy policing to banning WhatsApp, behold the evolution of Russian Internet censorship
On July 18, the Russian authorities made it clear that they plan to block the nation’s most popular messaging platform, WhatsApp. State Duma deputy Anton Gorelkin warned that the decision is imminent, and Meduza’s sources in the government confirmed that a ban on WhatsApp — which nearly 80 percent of Russians use — is a near certainty. This would hardly be Russia’s first attempt to block a popular online service. A decade ago, when federal regulators targeted piracy websites like Flibusta and RuTracker, the official rationale for censorship was to defend intellectual property rights. Today, the authorities justify their actions on national security grounds. Meduza looks back at some of Russia’s most sweeping Internet censorship efforts in the past 10 years.
2015
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The authorities block RuTracker, Russia’s most popular torrent tracker, and Flibusta, a shadow library and digital book-sharing site.
2016
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Russia blocks LinkedIn, the world’s largest social network for professional contacts, job searching, and employee recruitment.
2018
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Russia blocks Telegram, or rather, the authorities attempt to block it, but not very successfully. In 2020, the government lifted its ban on Telegram, declaring that the platform was ready to “counter terrorism and extremism.”
2021
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Russia’s federal media regulator, Roskomnadzor, begins targeting the popular anonymous browser Tor. Soon, officials start blocking VPN services (eventually banning them by the dozens).
2022
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With the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia blocks Facebook and Instagram. For years, the authorities had been throttling Twitter’s speed; they now block it outright. Chess.com, the largest online chess platform, and Patreon, the paid subscription platform, are also blocked. Google News becomes inaccessible (along with Russian independent media outlets).
2024
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Russia blocks Viber, Discord, and the secure, privacy-focused messaging app Signal. In some regions, mobile Internet outages become more frequent, and officials lay the groundwork for blocking WhatsApp and Telegram. YouTube is throttled to the point of being effectively blocked. Ficbook, the largest Russian-language fanfiction website, becomes inaccessible.
2025
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Sites using Cloudflare’s cloud service (which enables circumvention of Russian censorship without the need for VPNs) begin experiencing failures. Internet connectivity is routinely disrupted across most regions (both cellular and fixed-line networks). State Duma officials announce plans to block WhatsApp, the nation’s leading messaging platform.