Russians find ways to bypass Putin’s internet blockade

Russians are quickly turning to internet services that hide their location to help circumvent restrictions on access to foreign social media and news sites.

Virtual private network providers, or VPNs, have seen a surge in use from Russia after the Kremlin blocked Facebook and other services as part of a broader effort to silence dissent and limit reporting on its invasion of Ukraine. .

“Last week, we saw traffic to our website from Russia increase by around 330% week over weekHarold Li, vice president of ExpressVPN, said in an email to Bloomberg on Wednesday.

As of Tuesday, Russian interest in VPNs was more than eight times higher than pre-invasion levels, according to data compiled by Top10VPN. Usage peaked at more than 10 times on March 5, the day after Russian authorities blocked Facebook and Twitter.

VPNs are widely used and legal around the world and use encryption to create private connections between a user’s computer and a server in another city or country. This makes it difficult or impossible for that user’s local service provider, or law enforcement, to see what websites they access.

Surfshark says that average weekly sales in Russia have increased 35-fold since February 24, the day Russia began its invasion of Ukraine.

“The last time we saw a similar increase in sales was when China passed the Hong Kong Security Law in May 2020.″ said a company spokesman.

VPN users could be taking significant risk. Russia’s parliament last week passed harsh laws that would impose prison sentences on people accused of spreading “fake news” about the armed forces or ask for sanctions against the country.

Tunnel Bear, another VPN provider, said on Twitter that it was offering 10 gigabytes of data to anyone connecting from Russia “to ensure protest organizers, journalists and people at risk have access to a safe and informed internet.” .

Usage in Russia is also increasing for Proton AG’s VPN and email server, with VPN usage 10 times higher than pre-war levels.

“Many sources of information that people would traditionally turn to for the truth are blocked or at risk of being blocked.Proton CEO Andy Yen said. “To get the truth today in Russia, you need a VPN”.