The services listed as part of the ban are: Discord, Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Snapchat, Telegram, Threema, Viber, WhatsApp and WeChat. It's by no means an exhaustive list so far, with notable exceptions such as Zoom and Signal, although they may be added in due course.
Russia continues to block major platforms including Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter. If you don't have a VPN subscription already, you'll find yourself being cut off from the global internet, so you're only able to access a “splinternet” version that's native to Russia and is heavily censored.
The Russian Federation has added a new collection of Western-based social media apps to its infamous Register of Prohibited Sites, including Snapchat, Telegram, and WhatsApp.
The criteria for inclusion in the blacklist initially included child pornography, advocating suicide and illegal drugs. In 2013, the blacklist law was amended with content "suspected in extremism", "calling for illegal meetings", "inciting hatred" and "violating the established order".
Netflix's website and application are no longer working in Russia. As a result, reports Kommersant, the service can only be received via a VPN.
Russians can still use Spotify, but their access is limited to a free plan only. All premium accounts will remain valid until the subscription period and after that users will be transferred into free accounts.
Russia has banned Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, for "extremist activities," while carving out an exception for the company's WhatsApp messaging service. Using Twitter is getting harder too.
In 2022, Russia banned WhatsApp's parent company Meta Platforms Inc, citing it as an "extremist" organisation. Other Meta services, including Facebook and Instagram, are also banned in Russia.
Can You Use Instagram in Russia? Instagram is currently banned in Russia, but you can bypass Russian censorship geoblocks and access the full features of Instagram with a virtual private network (VPN). In our book, ExpressVPN is the best VPN for that purpose, but NordVPN and CyberGhost are cheaper alternatives.
But the wildly popular platform, developed with homegrown Chinese technology, isn't accessible in China. In fact, it's never existed there. Instead, there's a different version of TikTok — a sister app called Douyin.
Fact: TikTok, which is not available in mainland China, has established Los Angeles and Singapore as headquarters locations to meet its business needs. That is in keeping with ByteDance's approach to aligning business needs to the markets where its services operate. ByteDance does not have a single global headquarters.
Many of Google's services, including search, maps, Gmail and, perhaps most importantly, YouTube, continue to be available in Russia at a time when Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are not.
Is Gmail available in Russia? Like Google search services, Gmail is available in Russia.
Google, which has paused ad sales and most other commercial operations in Russia, said its free services, including Gmail, Maps, Android and Play, would remain available for Russian users.
In March 2022, amid its invasion of Ukraine, Russia began to increasingly block international news outlets such as BBC News Russian, Deutsche Welle, and RFE/RL (including Current Time), and Twitter was "restricted".
Due to payment system disruption, Google Play has paused its billing system for users in Russia as of March 10, 2022. This means users cannot purchase apps and games, make subscription payments or conduct any in-app purchases of digital goods using Google Play in Russia.
Unlike many games companies, Roblox has not stopped or suspended trading in Russia since the invasion. At a recent Roblox developer conference, Chief Executive Dave Baszucki said Russia sees more than two million active Roblox users a day, according to Bloomberg reporting.
A Russian court has banned Facebook and Instagram in the country, labelling its parent company Meta as “extremist” amid the Kremlin's sweeping crackdown on western social media giants.
VK is available in multiple languages but it is predominantly used by Russian speakers. VK users can message each other publicly or privately, edit these messages, create groups, public pages, and events; share and tag images, audio, and video; and play browser-based games.
Social media usage in Russia
After Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter were blocked in Russia at the end of February and the beginning of March 2022, a significant.
Spotify has approximately 365 million monthly active users in over 180 countries in the world. Despite the extensive global coverage, there are some countries where you can't access Spotify, including China, Ethiopia, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Iraq, Myanmar, Cuba and Venezuela.
Amazon has stopped shipping products to Russia and has suspended Prime streaming service in the country. It's one of many companies suspending business or exiting the Russian market amid the Ukraine war. Amazon doesn't have facilities in Russia and doesn't do business with the Russian government.