Overview of Internet Restrictions and IT Company Exodus After February 24

On February 24, Russia sent troops into Ukraine. Since then, much has changed for Russians both domestically and abroad.

Sanctions by International IT Companies

Many countries imposed sanctions on Russia. In late February and early March, IT companies began complying with their governments’ regulations and either left Russia or suspended their operations in various ways. For example:

• Xerox suspended deliveries to Russia
• Nokia stopped supplying telecom equipment
• Oracle suspended all operations
• Spotify closed its office indefinitely
• Cisco cut off access to its network academy for Russian students and instructors
• Microsoft suspended sales and services in Russia
• Adobe stopped selling its services in Russia
• IBM ceased operations and cooperation with Russian defense enterprises
• Amazon Web Services began blocking Russian user registrations
• Booking.com stopped operating
• Samsung suspended phone and chip deliveries to Russia
• Dell suspended product sales
• Ebay stopped shipping orders to Russia
• Major internet exchange point LINX disconnected Rostelecom and MegaFon
• Latvia banned Yandex.Taxi due to data storage in Russia
• Minecraft was removed from online stores for Russian users
• Apple Pay and Google Pay stopped working
• Netflix removed its app from Russian app stores
• Visa and Mastercard suspended operations

Visa and Mastercard cards issued in Russia still work domestically until expiration, as processing was transferred to the National Payment Card System (NSPK) in 2015. However, they no longer work abroad, and foreign-issued cards don’t work in Russia.

For a more complete list of companies that imposed sanctions, see here.

Some crypto exchanges also restricted access and froze funds. For example, BTC-Alpha ceased operations, KUNA disabled ruble trading pairs, and CEX IO suspended new registrations from Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Binance stopped accepting Russian-issued Mastercard and Visa cards from March 10. Major South Korean exchanges Upbit, Bithumb, and Korbit also blocked Russian users.

Bloggers, students, gamers, and even dating app users were affected. On March 4, YouTube disabled ads in Russia, ending monetization for Russian viewers. Twitch and Steam limited financial transactions to PayPal, but PayPal stopped registering new Russian users from March 3. Popular games like Brawl Stars were removed from app stores in Russia and Belarus, and existing accounts will lose access after the next update. Dating apps Bumble and Badoo also stopped working in Russia and Belarus. Disney suspended all film releases in Russian theaters. Russian students and universities lost access to MATLAB, and IELTS English exams were suspended.

Some companies chose to stay. ProtonMail decided not to leave Russia, citing the importance of user safety and access to blocked information. GitHub also remained, stating, “GitHub is home for all developers, no matter where they are.” Elon Musk’s satellite network refused to block Russian media. Roskomsvoboda believes that sanctions against ordinary Russian users only help censorship. Access to the internet and electronic communications is vital for Russians to receive objective information and make informed decisions. Exclusion from the global network deprives them of reliable external information and hinders peaceful resolution of the humanitarian crisis.

Roskomsvoboda calls on VPN services to provide free access to Russian users. Their petition has already yielded results: AmneziaVPN created a Telegram bot to distribute free limited VPN access, and enthusiasts launched HighLoad VPN based on Outline and Shadowsocks, also for free.

Blocking of Independent Media in Russia

On February 24, Roskomnadzor effectively introduced military censorship, requiring media to use only official Russian sources when reporting on the “special operation” in Ukraine. However, the law does not mandate exclusive use of official sources. According to Roskomsvoboda’s lawyer Sevan Avalyan, the law guarantees freedom to seek, receive, produce, and distribute information. Reliable sources can be non-Russian, but to avoid liability, information must be accurate or the distributor must not knowingly spread false information as true (see Articles 207.1 and 207.2 of the Russian Criminal Code).

On February 28, DOXA was blocked. Earlier, Roskomnadzor demanded the blocking of DOXA’s “Guide for Anti-War Disputes at Home and Work.” On March 1, the Prosecutor General’s Office demanded restrictions on the websites of Echo of Moscow and TV Rain for “calls to extremist activity” and “deliberately false information about Russian military actions.” On March 3, Echo of Moscow was liquidated.

Roskomnadzor blocked the websites of many independent media outlets, including Mediazona, Republic, 7×7, Agentstvo, Snob, Sobesednik, Current Time, Pskovskaya Guberniya, Taiga.info, Meduza, BBC, Deutsche Welle, The Village, Nasha Niva, TJ, and others. Ukrainian government and media sites were also blocked. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) previously ruled that total media blocking in Russia is illegal, but Russia has since left the Council of Europe, so its jurisdiction no longer applies (though complaints about violations before March 16 can still be filed).

Russian social networks VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and Yandex.Zen began blocking pages of media like Sever.Realii, Radio Liberty, Current Time, Meduza, and 7×7. VKontakte also blocked groups for Republic, The Village, and Mediazona.

“Independence and freedom of the media are even more important during conflicts or tension than in peaceful times,” says Roskomsvoboda spokesperson Natalya Malysheva. “Quality independent journalism is especially vital when sides are in conflict and may spread fake news or ban information to win at any cost.”

Ban on Russian State Media Abroad

On February 25, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia banned Russian channels like Rossiya, Rossiya 24, RTR Planeta, and NTV Mir. On February 26, VGTRK, Channel One, and Radio House Ostankino suspended membership in the European Broadcasting Union. On February 27, the EU banned RT and blocked Sputnik. Australia and Canada also banned RT and RT France.

Social networks also blocked Russian state media: Facebook restricted access to Zvezda and RIA Novosti, TikTok blocked RT and Sputnik accounts in the EU, and YouTube blocked Solovyov.Live. Facebook also banned Russian state media from advertising and monetizing content.

“In an ideal world of free speech, all interest groups with different views have access to all platforms. Anything else is censorship,” says Natalya Malysheva. “It’s even stranger when media platforms get involved: Roskomnadzor slows Twitter, Twitter blocks Russian state media, Roskomnadzor blocks Twitter. In the end, everyone loses—especially society, which is deprived of information channels.”

Blocking of Foreign Social Networks in Russia

Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are blocked in Russia. Facebook and Instagram have been declared extremist organizations. On February 28, Roskomnadzor demanded that TikTok remove military content from recommendations for minors. On March 2, technical experts noticed changes in YouTube’s service domains, possibly indicating Roskomnadzor was testing or preparing to slow down YouTube. On March 6, TikTok restricted Russian users from uploading new videos and viewing foreign content.

Between February 24 and March 1, VPN apps were downloaded over 1.3 million times in Russia, with demand up 1268% in a week. Other top iOS downloads included the Meduza news app, Flightradar24, secure messenger Signal, Bridgefy (for messaging without internet), and Maps.me with offline maps. On March 17, test blocks of circumvention tools like Psiphon, 1.1.1.1 WARP, and NordVPN were reported.

According to Mediascope, from February 24 to March 15:

• Instagram’s audience dropped 16% (from 39 million to 34 million)
• Facebook’s audience dropped 40% (from 10 million to 6 million)
• Twitter’s audience dropped 50% (from 2.6 million to 1.2 million)
• TikTok’s audience remained stable at about 31 million daily users

Censorship of Speech

On February 24, actor Marat Basharov was fired from the theater after posting a photo with Putin and writing “thank you.” The Mayakovsky Theater banned actors from commenting on Ukraine, equating criticism with “treason.” On February 25, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics told students not to post anything about Ukraine on social media. In Krasnoyarsk, police threatened residents over anti-war posts.

On March 6, the first fine under the new law banning public actions to discredit the Russian Armed Forces was issued: a 49-year-old man from Kemerovo region was fined 60,000 rubles for posting a video calling for anti-war protests. On March 22, the first person was arrested under the “fake news” law—Sergey Klokov, an employee of the Moscow police. On March 24, a Kaluga activist was fined 50,000 rubles for an anti-“special operation” video.

Read more about speech censorship in our upcoming digest on Article 282.

Cyberwarfare

The number of data leaks involving Russian and Ukrainian citizens surged in the first week of the conflict. From February 24 to 28, hacker attacks on Russian companies, government agencies, banks, and media at least tripled. On February 25, Anonymous hackers declared cyberwar on Russia, hacked the Ministry of Defense, and published a database allegedly containing employee phone numbers, emails, and names.

Major leaks included Yandex.Eda user data—names, phone numbers, addresses, and order details from the past six months were made public on March 22. Roskomsvoboda is preparing a class action lawsuit against the company and invites affected users to join by emailing [email protected]. Delivery service CDEK also reported a hack that exposed Russian and Ukrainian user data.

A Telegram bot called “Find Your Own” appeared, offering to check if relatives were affected in Ukraine, but actually collects personal data on Russian military personnel. Scammers promote the bot by calling citizens. Government and media websites were repeatedly hacked, with anti-war messages posted. On Apple Maps, Roskomnadzor was renamed “Ministry of Fascism.” Many government websites (including the government, State Duma, Moscow mayor’s office, FSB, and Ministry of Defense) experienced outages.

About 400,000 hackers from various countries are helping Ukraine resist Russian cyberattacks, according to CyberProof and Ukrainian authorities. Thus, cyberwarfare is being waged not only between Ukraine and Russia, but also by “digital soldiers” worldwide. For the first time in history, volunteers from around the globe have joined an open cyberwar.

Reactions

Twitter recommended users in the conflict zone in Ukraine deactivate their accounts. Meta introduced measures to protect Ukrainian users, including:

• Instantly locking Facebook profiles so only friends can see content
• Hiding friend lists to prevent harassment
• Warning users sharing war photos if the content is outdated
• Labeling Russian state media accounts and removing monetization

Members of the Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights called not to restrict free speech in Russia. Professionals from various fields—from anthropologists to cinematographers—created petitions calling to stop the “special operation.” An international letter on Avaaz gathered over 2 million signatures in a month. The Russian anti-war petition on Change.org collected over 1 million signatures and was delivered to the Russian President.

Russia has left the Council of Europe. This means Russians can no longer appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which was a key body for justice in cases involving freedom of information and privacy online.