Netizens’ demand for tools to circumvent Russian restrictions soared after the country blocked access to Meta’s main social networks Facebook and Instagram, data from a monitoring company showed.
Access to Instagram in Russia was cut as of Monday in response to Meta’s decision last week to allow social media users in Ukraine to post messages such as “Death to Russian Invaders”.
On the eve of the Instagram ban, demand for Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) that encrypt data and hide where a user is located rose 2,088% above the average daily demand in mid-February, data from monitoring company Top10VPN showed.
Russia has come under unprecedented Western sanctions for its actions in Ukraine and struggles to control the flow of information, smothering foreign social media companies with traffic slowdowns and, in the case of Facebook and Instagram, outright bans.
Demand for VPNs was already increasing in the region as Russian and Ukrainian websites fell victim to cyberattacks.
Russia banned several VPNs in the past year, failing to block them completely, as part of a broader campaign that critics see as stifling internet freedom.
Top10VPN’s analysis of over 6,000 entries in Russia’s central registry of blocked sites found that 203 news sites and 97 exchange and cryptocurrency sites are currently blocked in Russia.
State communications regulator Roskomnadzor said on Monday that the number of cyberattacks against the Russian government’s IT systems and infrastructure has risen sharply since Feb.
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