Russia has already blocked X and Facebook, and YouTube has been heavily throttled in recent days.
In its crackdown on foreign Internet services, Russia has also used encrypted Chat service Signal blocked due to alleged violations of the law. Signal does not comply with the legal measures that Countering terrorism and extremisms are necessary, said the responsible authority Roskomnadzor in Moscow.
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Throughout the day, complaints from Signal users in Russia had been piling up that the messenger service was unavailable. Portals such as Sboj.rf, which collect reports of disruptions, reported about 2,000 complaints. Signal was developed in the USA and is considered by its users as particularly secure communication channel appreciated.
YouTube heavily throttled
On Thursday, users in Russia also complained that YouTube works more slowly and videos are difficult to download. The Russian authorities have not made an official statement on this. However, according to statements made in recent days, they are targeting the extremely popular video service because it allegedly refuses to remove extremist videos.
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Large social networks with US owners such as X and Facebook Russia has already blocked them, they are only accessible via protected connections (VPN). Even before the war of aggression against Ukraine, Moscow was also making preparations for a possible isolation of the Internet in the country. Since the war began in 2022, Roskomnadzor has blocked thousands of websites that are not approved by the Russian power apparatus.
