The war in Ukraine has brought problems for Internet service providers. Russia has chosen to block many proposals over time, controlling how citizens have access to information. The most recent to be blocked was Google News.
Google News was Blocked and Unavailable in Russia
Yesterday was marked by yet another turning point in the war in Ukraine. The military forces of the Wagner Group have taken a clear stand against Russia, thus seeking to change the course of the war and seeking what is thought to be a move to oust President Vladimir Putin.
As a result of this change, authorities in Russia have taken yet another measure to control information. From what is being reported, Internet access providers in the country have started blocking access to Google News.
There is still no information whether this is a measure required by the country’s telecommunications regulator, Roskomnadzor. The truth is that many ISPs are blocking access to this site, as they have done for other services in the past, to control access to information.
Confirmed: Metrics show that the Google News aggregator platform has become unavailable for many users in #Russia ; the incident comes amid heightened tensions between the Wagner paramilitary group and Moscow pic.twitter.com/wXyzM0M79k
— NetBlocks (@netblocks) June 23, 2023
Confirmed: Metrics show that the Google News aggregator platform has become unavailable for many users in #Russia ; the incident comes amid heightened tensions between the Wagner paramilitary group and Moscow pic.twitter.com/wXyzM0M79kThis is a new action that is in line with what this regulator has ordered in the past. Since the beginning of the war with Ukraine, other services such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and many others have seen access being controlled on the territory of Russia.
Google, however, has not yet reacted to this block and has not even confirmed it. It is expected that the search giant will try to find measures that try to circumvent the blockade and thus allow access to all citizens in Russia to this service.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, many Western tech companies either pulled out of the country or saw their services blocked by Roskomnadzor. Putin’s country thus seeks to control and limit all the information they have access to.