Roskomnadzor has begun cracking down on websites that disseminate information about hostilities and deaths of civilians in Ukraine.
From the beginning of March, a wave of blocking social networks and media resources began in Russia in connection with reports of a war in Ukraine, reports the Chronicle.info with reference to Focus.
Why Facebook does not work in Russia
On the night of March 3-4, around 22:00, access to the social network in all regions of the Russian Federation dropped sharply — to 17%. According to data for Moscow, of the five major Internet providers, only «Rostelecom» allows you to log into Facebook, and even then with a long signal delay.
The Russian version of the Downdetector crash detection service shows that since 22:00 on March 3, many users began to complain about problems with Facebook, the peak of messages fell at midnight. On the morning of March 4, Russians are still complaining, 57% of the problems relate to the operation of the website, 27% to the application, and 16% to authorization. jpg» />Experts GlobalCheck in the Telegram channel suggested that Facebook was blocked in the Russian Federation using technical threat countermeasures (TSPU). This is a software and hardware complex that allows you to restrict access to information, the distribution of which is prohibited on the territory of Russia. The state regulator Roskomnadzor required telecom operators to install such complexes from September 2020 as part of the law on «sovereign Internet» 2019.
Thanks to TSPU, the department can centrally manage the Russian segment of the Internet, filtering traffic using DPI (Deep Packet Inspection — & # 171; deep packet inspection & # 187;). DPI analyzes the contents of packets (short blocks in which information is transmitted over the Internet). This technology does not allow you to study the contents of the packages, but the metadata gives out which sites the user visits and what data exchange protocols he uses. So far, not all operators have TSPU installed, so some users were able to maintain access.
What social media are blocked in Russia
GlobalCheck has detected the blocking of media in Russia, in particular sites:
- tvrain .ru (TV channel «Rain»),
- echo.msk.ru (radio «Echo of Moscow»),
- dw. com (German edition of Deutsche Welle),
- bbc.com (British broadcaster BBC),
- meduza.io (Meduza news website),
- currenttime.tv («Current website),
- the-village.ru (The Village website),
- doxajournal.ru (DOXA online magazine),
- newtimes.ru (New Times website ),
- krymr.com («Crimea.Realities»).
When you try to enter the site of the channel «Rain» a warning from Roskomnadzor appears: «Dear users! We apologize, but access to the requested resource is restricted». Website «Echo of Moscow» opens in Ukraine, but the information on it is displayed incorrectly. Twitter continues to slow down.
GlobalCheck & nbsp; writes that the App Store and Google Play also do not work in Russia. Apps.apple.com and play.google.com domains are blocked, however, store applications on devices access other service hosts and are still working.
Why Roskomnadzor blocked a number of resources in the Russian Federation
On February 26, Roskomnadzor sent notifications the need to restrict access to certain Internet resources, referring to the requirement of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. The reason for the adoption of such measures was the publication of the war between Russia and Ukraine, which is required to be called a «military operation».
«On these resources, under the guise of reliable messages, socially significant untrue information about the shelling of Ukrainian cities and the death of civilians in Ukraine as a result of the actions of the Russian Army, as well as materials in which the ongoing operation is called an attack, invasion, or a declaration of war, is posted&# 187;, writes the official website of the department.
On March 3, Roskomnadzor reported that it had sent «Google» (responsible for Google's advertising activities in Russia) a letter demanding to stop the spread of false information on YouTube «false information» about the military operation in Ukraine. As noted by the agency, Russian users are shown such messages when watching videos allegedly to provoke protests.
Such advertising messages are shown to Russian users of YouTube video hosting and contain disinformation aimed at creating a distorted perception of what is happening among the Russian Internet audience and creating protest moods.
«In addition to inaccurate content, such advertising is not age-labeled, which violates both the rules of the video hosting itself and the current Russian legislation», the body's website writes. «Roskomnadzor requires the video hosting administration to immediately revise the conditions for moderating advertising content, as well as stop showing it to Russian users».
Why users from Ukraine may encounter problems with Facebook
The English version of Downdetector shows that in other countries Facebook works without major disruptions. However, users from Ukraine may also encounter problems for a number of technical reasons. The use of a VPN can lead to a slowdown or failure of the site and application — now there are a huge number of services and they are distinguished by their reliable operation. In addition, the country whose IP address is used plays a role — in some cases, the signal delay may be longer. Do not forget about possible problems on the part of the Internet provider.