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As part of a sustained campaign to increase oversight over online communications, state regulators have restricted access to Snapchat and imposed restrictions on Apple's video calling service, Apple FaceTime.

Stated Reasons for the Block

The regulatory body Roskomnadzor alleged that these services were employed to organize and conduct terrorist acts inside Russia, to recruit perpetrators and carry out fraud and other crimes targeting Russian citizens.

Roskomnadzor stated it enforced the restriction on Snapchat on October 10, although the announcement was only made public on Thursday.

Wider Context of Internet Control

These new restrictions come after similar limitations against popular services including YouTube, WhatsApp and Instagram, and the Telegram service. The campaign of restrictions intensified in the wake of the onset of the conflict of Ukraine.

During the tenure of Vladimir Putin, the government have pursued deliberate and multi-pronged efforts to rein in the internet. Measures have included:

• Adopting restrictive laws.
• Blocking online services that fail to comply with state demands.
• Perfecting systems to monitor and manipulate online traffic.

Other Instances of Crackdowns

Service for the YouTube platform was throttled in the past in an incident described as targeted interference by the authorities. Russian officials pointed the finger at Google for failing to maintain its hardware in Russia.

This summer, officials limited online access with broad outages of mobile internet connections. Officials insisted this was needed to counter Ukrainian drone attacks, but critics saw it as another step to increase control over the digital landscape.

Action Against Messaging Apps

Regulators has also moved against widely-used messaging platforms. The encrypted app Signal and another popular app, Viber, were banned in recently. This year, authorities prohibited calls via the WhatsApp app and Telegram, defending the action by saying the two apps were being used for illegal activities.

At the same time, the state have heavily pushed a dubbed "domestic" messenger app called "Max". Observers see it as a potential monitoring instrument. The app openly declares it will provide user information with officials upon request, and experts note it does not use full encryption.

Regulatory Basis and Analyst Commentary

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

This designation mandates that such services have an account with the regulator and allow state security with the ability to monitor communications. Services failing to do so are non-compliant and may be banned.

Seleznev estimated that potentially many millions of users in Russia had been relying on FaceTime, especially after restrictions were placed on WhatsApp and Telegram. He called the blocking of the Apple service as "predictable" and cautioned that other sites that do not cooperate with authorities "are likely to be blocked – that is clear."

Entertainment Platforms Also Targeted

In a separate action, the government announced it was banning the online game platform Roblox, stating the reason was protecting children from harmful content. According to research group Mediascope, Roblox was the number two game platform in Russia in October, with nearly 8 million active users.

While it remains possible to get around a few of these limitations by using virtual private network services, those are also often blocked by officials as well.