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Russia has reportedly cut some regions of the country off from the rest of the world’s internet for a day, effectively siloing them, according to reports from European and Russian news outlets reshared by the US nonprofit Institute for the Study of War (ISW) and Western news outlets.
Russia’s communications authority, Roskomnadzor, blocked residents in Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia, which have majority-Muslim populations, ISW says. The three regions are in southwest Russia near its borders with Georgia and Azerbaijan. People in those areas couldn’t access Google, YouTube, Telegram, WhatsApp, or other foreign websites or apps—even if they used VPNs, according to a local Russian news site.
These latest partial internet blocks are because Russia is testing its own sovereign internet it can fully control. Russia already tested blocking or throttling sites like YouTube this year by slowing down speeds so much that sites are virtually unusable. Russia has reportedly poured $648 million into its national internet and tech that can power restrictions, and has been seemingly working on this since at least 2019.
In the future, Russia could also block Amazon Web Services (AWS), HostGator, and other foreign web hosts, ISW says. The country may also force Russian residents and companies to stop using such services and migrate over to Russian-owned ones so the government can enforce its own rules.
Separately, in September, the Wix and Notion platforms told Russian users to stop using their sites due to US sanctions. And back in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine, Western domain registrar GoDaddy condemned the war as “horrible,” stopped supporting Russian domains, ditched Russia’s currency, and announced it was donating $500,000 to support Ukraine. All of these blocks and disconnections contribute to the splinternet we’re hurtling toward today.
China is another country known for its internet censorship. Colloquially dubbed the “Great Firewall” in reference to the Great Wall of China, internet access in China has been censored in this way for over a decade, but Chinese internet censorship efforts first began back in 1998 with China’s “Golden Shield” project. In recent years, China has censored even single letters as well as keywords it deems unwanted and unacceptable for the internet. Video streaming sites and meeting platforms like Zoom have also been censored, along with a slew of other foreign apps. It’s unclear, however, to what extent Russian internet censorship might mirror these policies.
VPNs, which stand for virtual private networks, can allow users to get around certain geographic restrictions by virtually locating the user in another country. But VPNs aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution, and can be censored. Internet providers are able to tell if a user has a VPN enabled and can block access to sites in some circumstances. In the US, streaming platforms like Netflix as well as some shopping sites have been blocking VPN users globally by determining whether an IP address is tied to a VPN provider or appears to be in a different location from the user’s internet provider.
VPN use has historically spiked when internet censorship appears. US Pornhub users in some states have been looking for VPNs to get around state-level blocks, and Hong Kong residents flocked to VPNs when China announced a new security law, to name two examples from the past few years. But Iran, Cuba, Myanmar, Vietnam, and Saudi Arabia are also considered to offer little internet freedom. While VPNs can help some for now, they’re not a perfect solution and may not work forever.
