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Amid a ongoing crackdown to exert greater control over online communications, Russian officials have cut off access to Snapchat and enacted limitations on the Apple FaceTime service, Apple FaceTime.

Official Reasons for the Ban

The state internet regulator Roskomnadzor alleged that these services were being used to organize and conduct terrorist acts inside Russia, to recruit perpetrators and commit fraud and other crimes against citizens.

Roskomnadzor stated it initiated the block on Snapchat back on the 10th of October, though the move was only reported on Thursday.

Wider Campaign of Digital Crackdown

These latest moves are part of comparable blocks imposed on key apps including YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram, and the Telegram service. This wave of restrictions began in earnest following the onset of the conflict of Ukraine.

During the tenure of Vladimir Putin, authorities have undertaken deliberate and multi-pronged efforts to rein in the open internet. Measures have included:

• Passing stringent legislation.
• Blocking online services that do not comply with state demands.
• Advancing technology to observe and control online traffic.

Recent Examples of Restrictions

Service for the YouTube platform was slowed in the past in what experts called intentional slowing by regulators. Russian officials blamed YouTube's owner, Google for allegedly neglecting its servers in Russia.

Recently, officials limited online access with broad outages of mobile internet connections. The government stated this was required to thwart Ukrainian drone attacks, but critics saw it as an additional move to assert dominance over the internet.

Targeting Communication Platforms

The government has also moved against widely-used communication apps. The encrypted app Signal and the Viber service, Viber, were banned in 2024. Additionally, officials outlawed voice calls on WhatsApp and Telegram, justifying the ban by saying the platforms were being involved in criminal activities.

Concurrently, authorities have heavily pushed a dubbed "national" messenger app called Max. Critics see it as a potential tool for oversight. The app admits it will provide user information with the government if demanded, and experts note it is not equipped with full encryption.

Regulatory Basis and Analyst Analysis

According to lawyer and expert Stanislav Seleznev, Russian law views any service where users can message as an "organizer of dissemination of information".

This designation mandates that platforms register with Roskomnadzor and grant state security with entry to user data. Services failing to meet these demands are non-compliant and can get blocked.

Seleznev estimated that potentially many millions of Russians had been turning to FaceTime, particularly after voice calls were prohibited on WhatsApp and Telegram. He called the blocking of the service as "expected" and warned that further services that do not cooperate with Roskomnadzor "face blocking – it is inevitable."

Entertainment Sites Also Affected

In a related action, the authorities announced it was restricting Roblox, citing protecting children from illicit content. Per data from research group Mediascope, Roblox was the second-largest game platform in Russia in October, with nearly 8 million players.

Although it is still feasible to bypass certain of these blocks by using virtual private network services, those are also often blocked by officials as well.