(Reuters) As Russia cut off access to Meta Platforms Inc.’s (FB.O) main social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, there was a huge demand for ways to get around the restrictions, according to data from a monitoring company.
The Instagram service was suspended in Russia on Monday as a result of Meta’s decision last week to enable social media users in Ukraine to post slogans such as “Death to the Russian invaders.” Continue Reading Facebook has previously been blocked by Moscow due to what it said were limits on access to Russian media on the platform.
Requests for Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), which encrypt data and hide a user’s location, rose 2,088 percent on the day before Instagram was shut down, according to data from monitoring company Top10VPN, which looked at how many people used them each day.
As a result, Russia has been subjected to unprecedented western sanctions in response to its activities in Ukraine and is struggling to control the flow of information, suffocating international social media corporations via traffic slowdowns and, in the case of Facebook and Instagram, outright bans.
Demand for VPNs had already been increasing in the area as a result of cyber assaults on Russian and Ukrainian websites. Continue reading
Russia banned a lot of VPN services last year, but it didn’t completely get rid of them as part of a bigger plan that opponents say restricts internet freedom.
According to Top10VPN’s examination of more than 6,000 entries in Russia’s official directory of prohibited websites, the Russian Federation presently blocks 203 news websites and 97 foreign exchange and cryptocurrency websites.
The Russian state communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, stated Monday that the number of cyberattacks against the Russian government’s information technology systems and infrastructure has grown significantly since Feb. 24.
It cautioned offenders that cyber assaults might result in criminal liability.