🔗 Share this article Russia Restricts Snapchat and Limits Apple's FaceTime, Officials Announce Amid a sustained effort to tighten control over online communications, Russian regulators have blocked access to Snapchat and placed curbs on the Apple video calling service, Apple FaceTime. Official Justifications for the Ban Russia's communications watchdog Roskomnadzor claimed that the two apps were utilized to organize and conduct terrorist activities on Russian soil, for recruiting individuals and commit fraud along with other offenses aimed at the populace. The regulator stated it initiated the block targeting Snapchat back on the 10th of October, though the announcement was only reported on Thursday. Wider Campaign of Online Restrictions These new restrictions come after previous blocks against popular services including Google's YouTube, Meta's WhatsApp and Instagram, and the Telegram service. The campaign of bans escalated in the wake of the 2022 military action of Ukraine. During the tenure of Vladimir Putin, the government have pursued systematic and wide-ranging strategies to curtail the digital space. This has included: Passing restrictive laws. Banning online services that do not comply with Russian regulations. Developing technology to track and influence internet traffic. Recent Examples of Restrictions Access to YouTube was throttled last year in a case of targeted interference by the authorities. Authorities pointed the finger at YouTube's owner, Google for not properly maintaining its infrastructure in Russia. Recently, authorities tightened online access with extensive outages of cellular data connections. The government insisted this was required to thwart Ukrainian drone attacks, but critics argued an additional move to assert dominance over the internet. Targeting Communication Apps Regulators has also moved against widely-used messaging platforms. The encrypted app Signal and the Viber service, Viber, were banned in 2024. Furthermore, officials banned calls via WhatsApp and Telegram, defending the measure by claiming the services were being facilitating illegal activities. Concurrently, the state have heavily pushed a dubbed "national" messenger app called "Max". Critics view it as a potential surveillance tool. The service explicitly states it will share user data with authorities when asked, and experts note it lacks full encryption. Regulatory Basis and Analyst Analysis According to lawyer and expert Stanislav Seleznev, regulations defines any service where people can communicate as an "information dissemination organizer". This label mandates that platforms establish a presence with Roskomnadzor and grant the FSB with access to user accounts. Those failing to meet these demands are in violation and can get blocked. Seleznev pointed out that perhaps many millions of users in Russia had been relying on FaceTime, especially after restrictions were placed on other messaging apps. He called the restrictions against the service as "predictable" and warned that other sites failing to cooperate with authorities "will be blocked – that's obvious." Entertainment Platforms Too Targeted As another development, the authorities announced it was blocking the online game platform Roblox, stating the reason was child protection from harmful content. According to research group Mediascope, Roblox was the second most popular game platform in Russia recently, with close to eight million players. While it is still feasible to get around a few of these blocks by employing virtual private network services, such tools are also often blocked by authorities as well.