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Amid a sustained effort to increase oversight over internet access, state officials have cut off access to Snapchat and placed curbs on the Apple video calling service, FaceTime.

Official Reasons for the Ban

Russia's communications watchdog Roskomnadzor alleged that both applications were being used to organize and conduct terrorist acts on Russian soil, to recruit perpetrators and engage in fraudulent activities as well as various crimes aimed at the populace.

Roskomnadzor said it enforced the restriction against Snapchat in early October, even though the move was only made public later.

Broader Context of Internet Control

This recent action come after comparable blocks against key apps including Google's YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram, and the Telegram service. The campaign of censorship escalated after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

During the tenure of Vladimir Putin, the government have undertaken calculated and multi-pronged efforts to curtail the digital space. Actions have involved:

• Adopting tough new laws.
• Outlawing websites and platforms that refuse to cooperate with Russian regulations.
• Perfecting technology to observe and control online traffic.

Recent Instances of Crackdowns

Access to the YouTube platform was slowed in the past in an incident described as intentional slowing by regulators. Authorities attributed the issue to Google for not properly maintaining its hardware in Russia.

Recently, officials further restricted online access with broad outages of mobile internet connections. Officials claimed this was necessary to thwart drone strikes, but experts argued an additional move to tighten control over the internet.

Targeting Messaging Platforms

The government has also moved against widely-used messaging platforms. The encrypted app Signal and the Viber service, Viber, were restricted in recently. This year, officials prohibited calls via the WhatsApp app and Telegram, defending the ban by saying the two apps were being involved in crime.

Concurrently, authorities have championed a dubbed "national" messenger app called "Max". Observers view it as a potential surveillance tool. The service explicitly states it will hand over data with the government when asked, and analysts note it does not use strong encryption.

Regulatory Basis and Analyst Commentary

As explained by cyber security expert Stanislav Seleznev, the legal framework views any service where users can message as an "information dissemination organizer".

This designation mandates that platforms register with Roskomnadzor and allow Russia's security service with entry to user data. Platforms that fail to do so are non-compliant and may be banned.

Seleznev estimated that potentially tens of millions of users in Russia had been relying on FaceTime, particularly after voice calls were prohibited on WhatsApp and Telegram. He called the blocking of the service as "predictable" and warned that further services failing to cooperate with authorities "are likely to be blocked – that's obvious."

Gaming Sites Too Affected

In a related development, the authorities reported it was banning Roblox, citing protecting children from illicit content. Per data from media monitoring group Mediascope, Roblox was the number two game platform in Russia in October, with nearly eight million players.

Although it is still feasible to get around a few of these limitations by employing virtual private network services, VPNs themselves are frequently targeted by authorities as well.