‘My phone is a brick’: Russians scramble for information as data blocked

On Friday, a group of children dressed in red took to the stage on Field of Wonders, a game show which has been broadcast on Russian television since late Soviet times.

“We don’t want it, we don’t want it,” the children sang cheerfully.

“We don’t sit, we don’t sit on your internet.”

The song finished optimistically, suggesting that instead of doomscrolling, “it’s much more fun to meet your friends nearby!”

While it might well be good for youngsters to play outside every once in a while, given the ongoing war with Ukraine, the song was perhaps also aimed at older viewers.

While internet outages have been happening periodically over the past year in the border regions, where fighting has spilled over from Ukraine, this month, major cities such as Moscow and Saint Petersburg have experienced blackouts as well.

Observers say signs point to the Kremlin tightening its grip on cyberspace.

The outages only seem to affect mobile data, leaving Wi-Fi functional, and parts of the capital, especially the outskirts, have been spared the shutdown. But going offline has disrupted everyday life. People say it has become impossible to message friends or colleagues on the go, or to check your phone for directions.

“We practically have no mobile internet now,” Diana, a St Petersburg teacher in her mid-30s, told Al Jazeera.

“That means you can’t use maps, apps, or anything. And in Moscow, you can’t even call from downtown. The phone’s just turned into a brick. Yes, and you can only pay for anything in cash. In short, you feel like you’re 20 years in the past.”

Earlier this month, the newspaper Kommersant estimated that Moscow’s economy lost 3-5 billion rubles ($36m-$65m) in just five days of shutdown in the city. Authorities have stated that the outages, which began in central Moscow but have now spread elsewhere in the country, are necessary for “security” in light of recent Ukrainian drone attacks.

“That reasoning is not particularly convincing,” Anastasiya Zhyrmont, policy manager for Eastern Europe and Central Asia at the digital rights group Access Now, told Al Jazeera.

“Disrupting civilian internet access is a blunt instrument and is widely seen by experts as ineffective against the kind of threats being cited.”

Instead, Zhyrmont suggested, a more plausible explanation is that these blackouts are being used to test the government’s so-called “whitelist” of approved websites, through which only approved services or platforms will remain accessible while everything else is blocked.

The blackouts have proven deeply unpopular, even among those usually supportive of the Kremlin.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of the embattled Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, which has come under artillery fire and drone attacks, has sharply criticised the internet outages and called for Roskomnadzor – Russia’s cyber-censorship agency – to “be put on trial”.

“Who will answer for the deaths of people who were unable to get information about drones because mobile internet was shut down? Did the people who did this use their heads at all?” he asked in a live broadcast last week.

The ‘sovereign internet’

The Russian government has been gradually imposing online censorship since the 2010s, tasking Roskomnadzor with blacklisting websites allegedly promoting drug abuse, suicide and child abuse. However, in practice, this has meant blocking pages offering help and advice for people struggling with these issues, and even Wikipedia articles about them.

In 2019, the “sovereign internet” law was passed, requiring internet providers to install state-controlled monitoring equipment in their facilities. This allowed real-time filtering, surveillance and the selective blocking of online traffic.

“The ‘sovereign internet’ refers to a model of internet governance where a state seeks to tightly control digital infrastructure, data flows, and online content within its borders,” Zhyrmont said.

“By restricting access to external platforms, the state reduces exposure to independent reporting and alternative viewpoints, reinforcing its ability to shape public narratives for propaganda purposes.”

At the same time, she said, internet traffic under controlled infrastructure enables surveillance capabilities, making it easier to monitor communications and identify dissent.

“This creates a tightly managed digital space where access to information is filtered, controlled and, when necessary, suppressed. In that sense, the ‘sovereign internet’ is not just about digital autonomy – it is about information control, enabling propaganda, surveillance and censorship at scale.”

Since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, cyber-censorship in Russia has rapidly accelerated. Popular social media such as Facebook, Instagram, the gaming platform Roblox, and the messaging app WhatsApp have been blocked on the grounds that they are used to spread “fake news” about the war in Ukraine.

Another technique is “throttling” – not blocking websites outright, but deliberately slowing them to the point the user is frustrated and gives up. When YouTube was throttled in 2024, authorities blamed the website’s slow speed on Google’s servers, a claim the company denied.

Russian authorities have also taken steps to pressure app stores to remove VPNs (virtual private networks), which can be used to bypass restrictions.

Although more than one-third of Russians use VPNs, according to Levada, an independent polling organisation, the majority, especially the elderly, still do not.

“At the request of Roskomnadzor, Apple quietly removed dozens of VPN services from the Russian app store, and independent monitoring found nearly 100 apps effectively unavailable,” said Zhyrmont.

“On the technical side, Russian filtering infrastructure can detect and block many popular VPN protocols.”

Then, Russians lost access to Telegram last week, with access only restored on Sunday after Roskomnadzor’s attempts to block the popular app reportedly ran into technical difficulties, something the agency has denied.

Roskomnadzor did not respond to requests for comment from Al Jazeera.

Taking aim at Telegram

“In my opinion, Telegram is currently the most important source of communication and information for Russians,” Russian social democrat politician Nikolai Kavkazsky told Al Jazeera.

“For me, the most obvious reason is that the authorities want to restrict free communication and expression among Russians, men and women, even though the Russian Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantee these rights … They also want to sever the connection between [the opposition-minded diaspora] and those who remained.”

The founder and CEO of Telegram, St Petersburg-born Pavel Durov, who was arrested in France last year on charges of failing to prevent illegal activity on the app, has long been at odds with the Russian government over freedom of speech.

In 2014, he sold his stake in the hugely popular social media platform he founded, VKontakte (VK), and fled Russia.

Since then, the authorities have claimed his Telegram app is a liability exploited by NATO and Ukrainian intelligence.

Amid the Russia-Ukraine war, Telegram has been used as a communications tool by both sides’ forces, but there have been reports from independent Russian media that Russian soldiers are being ordered to delete the app. Failing to do so can get them reassigned to the dreaded Storm-Z battalions, deployed on suicidal charges towards enemy lines.

In February, Russia opened a criminal investigation into Durov for facilitating “terrorism”. Around the same time, Telegram started being throttled, in preparation for a full block, which is set to come into effect on April 1.

Dima, a Moscow-based political consultant in his early 30s who did not wish to give his full name for fear of repercussions, played down the disruption.

“Telegram worked even without a VPN, but it only loaded text,” he told Al Jazeera.

“Basically, commoners and old-timers who didn’t have a VPN have been deprived of Telegram. Telegram has become elitist. Otherwise, everything’s the same.”

An alternative cyberspace, and the rise of ‘Max’

To replace Telegram and other social media platforms, the Russian government has been heavily promoting an alternative cyberspace. After YouTube was throttled, a number of Russian imitators appeared, nicknamed “YouTube killers,” such as Nuum and Platforma, but have struggled to win popularity. Only the more established VK Video, linked to the social network of the same name, has roughly comparable viewership with YouTube.

But the most talked-about new app is Max. More than a Telegram alternative for chatting and sharing news and media, Max is designed to be a super app, catering to a wider range of citizens’ needs.

“I installed it on my second phone,” said Diana, the teacher.

“We have no options now – if you want to make a doctor’s appointment or pay taxes, for example, you have to get it through Max. The code for accessing government services doesn’t come anywhere else.”

Diana hasn’t installed Max on her primary phone for fear that, besides being a way of sharing funny cat videos, the app is a mass surveillance tool. According to Zhyrmont, “Max does not merely record user messages or metadata.

“MAX can report your real-time movements – a tool that, in repressive conditions, can expose attendance at protests, political gatherings, or simply trace your personal contacts and mobility,” she said.

Max also harvests user data: age, gender, links to other accounts, and even search history, exposing the user to fines and other penalties for looking up what the authorities vaguely consider “extremist” content – for instance, the so-called “international LGBTQ movement”.

“The app is reportedly capable of more invasive operations: silently activating the microphone, camera or screen-recording, even when the user believes the app is idle,” Zhyrmont added.

Criticism of Russia’s online restrictions has come from all sides of the political spectrum, from oppositionists like Kavkazsky to hawkish war-supporting bloggers, for whom Telegram has become a major platform.

Over the past month, authorities have suppressed protests against Telegram restrictions across the country.

“The youth have had all their popular services blocked, and whereas before, when [SWIFT] payment systems were blocked, that could be blamed on Western sanctions, now it’s our Russian state taking this away,” observed 39-year-old St Petersburg resident Kirill F.

“The younger generation only sees violations of their personal boundaries.”

Zhyrmont believes that while state-approved services will resume to quell public frustration, the overall trajectory points to a normalisation of internet shutdowns where the government can control access during “sensitive movements”. Nevertheless, a total ban on VPNs is unlikely, so that select organisations can retain access for “legitimate use”.

“That said, given the broader trajectory of digital control in recent years, nothing can be completely ruled out,” she said.

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: aljazeera.com