Look at the graph of requests in Google search from Russia over the past weeks. Something happened around February 24, and the Russians began to show massive interest in the Latin abbreviation – VPN (or VPN in Cyrillic).
The demand of Russians for VPN services from February 24 to March 1 grew by almost 14 times (!) compared to a week earlier, Ivan Samoylenko, managing partner of B&C Agency, told TASS. He also revealed the reasons for the hype – the blocking of social networks and restrictions for Russian users after the start of a special operation in Ukraine.
“Due to the situation with social networks in Russia, the demand for VPNs has skyrocketed. For a week – by 1,268%. There is also data from February 24 to March 5 on the number of people who installed VPN applications in the App Store and Google Play – during this period they were installed by at least 5 million people, ”said Samoylenko to the state information agency.
As the expert notes, the Russians are thus looking for alternative ways to communicate in foreign social networks.
Interest in these three letters grew especially sharply on March 11. Presumably due to the announcement of blocking Instagram in Russia.
In short, a VPN is a way to get around internet obstacles. No technical knowledge is required to use the VPN, and it can work on both mobile devices and desktop.
How exactly this is done was described in detail by Russian TV channels in 2017, when VKontakte and Yandex were blocked in Ukraine. Then the following words were heard on the air of Russian state television channels: “There is nothing worse than the destruction of social ties, because this is daily communication.”
In general, here every word seems to have been said a few hours ago, they are so relevant. Here, for example, is the story of Russia 24 in 2017 about the pointlessness of blocking social networks and ways to bypass them.
And here is an even more revealing story of 2017 from Channel One, where the three cherished letters just sound – VPN.
And again “Russia 24” from 2017. Here are more details on how you can bypass the bans of social networks and sites…
As TV “experts” advised, VPN should be connected. And millions of Russians have already followed this recommendation.
Important: Using a VPN is completely legal. And it was even recommended by federal state TV channels. And citizens of the Russian Federation who, bypassing the blocking, continue to use banned social networks, will not be held liable. RIA Novosti was told about this by Senator Andrey Klishas last week.
Source: Rosbalt
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
