Russia blocks 14,800 websites in a single week

Roskomsvoboda, an NGO that focuses on protecting internet users’ digital rights, claims that almost 15,000 websites were blocked in Russia in a week.

Their research indicates that Russian authorities banned 14,800 new websites between 5 December and 11 December and asserted that most blockages (60%) resulted from court decisions. Additionally, the NGO calculated that throughout 2022, Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor blocked an average of 4,900 websites per week.

The last such spike in blocks was seen in April 2021, during demonstrations in support of the politician Alexei Navalny, when 18,000 sites and pages were blocked, Roskomsvoboda noted.