Does Russia censor the Internet as much as China?


Russia has banned many social networks since the start of its invasion of Ukraine. But many other sites are still available in the country.

Facebook, Instagram, but also Deezer, and even Avast and Eset antiviruses are now banned in Russia. As for Twitter, while it hasn’t been completely banned, it is nonetheless extremely restricted, just like TikTok and Amazon.Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, 2022, a whole part of the Internet has been banned in Russia, and to which Internet users in the country can no longer officially access.

If the situation becomes more and more complicated for Russians wishing to learn about the war in Ukraine, their access to the Internet is not completely restrictedto pro-government sites. But the few sources of information are threatened, and could find themselves forced to close.

Is the situation worse than in China?

The situation in Russia and its increasingly heavy censorship on the Internet raise questions: is the country moving towards an Internet cut off from the rest of the world, as is the case in China?

Baidu headquarters, one of the most visited sites in China // Source: Wikimedia Commons

For the moment, the Russian case is very, very far from what is happening in China. The Beijinn regime bans almost all sites that are not Chinese, and the most important ones. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are not allowed in the country, but that’s not all. Google (and its entire suite of tools, such as Gmail, Maps, Drive, or even YouTube), Wikipedia, Snapchat, Reddit, Netflix, Twitch, Spotify, WhatsApp, Messenger… the list is still very long.

Unlike in Russia, China’s internet is almost completely cut off from the rest of the world, operating mostly in a vacuum betweenBaidu, Alibaba, Douyin or WeChat. And when Internet users want to access rare authorized European or American sites, the connection is so slow that it dissuades the least motivated.

What sites are still allowed in Russia

The situation in Russia is therefore far from being as drastic as that in China. Russians still have access to Google, as well as YouTube, Reddit, etc. Where it is easier in China to count authorized sites, in Russia, blocked sites are currently in the minority. Russians still have access, for now, to:

  • Amazon, and on all other sites owned by it, such as Amazon Prime and Twitch. New sign-ups to these services are blocked, however, and for professional Twitch streamers, payments are suspended.
  • Google, and all these services (Gmail, maps) as well as YouTube,
  • Reddit,
  • Wikipedia, although the online encyclopedia may soon be banned. Roskomnadzor, the Russian communications monitoring service, threatened to block the Russian version of the site because of the publication of an article on the war in Ukraine, entitled “Russian invasion of Ukraine”. In addition to the fact that it does not respect the vocabulary of the Kremlin (“a special operation”), the Wikipedia article relates, according to Roskomnadzor, false information.
  • and generally all other websites.

It should be noted that the country is used to censorship on the Internet. The first sites of opponents of Vladimir Putin’s policies were blocked as early as 2009, and certain Wikipedia articles were blocked as early as 2012. Sites with a link to the LGBTQ+ community are regularly blocked, and in 2015, those addressing the subject cryptocurrencies as well.

Although they don’t always last long, censorships are very common. The disappearance of an entire section of the Internet is therefore not necessarily a big surprise for Russians, even if it occurs on an impressive scale – and it could continue for a long time.



Source link -100