Following its arrests of anti-war demonstrators and crackdown of independent media outlets, the Kremlin has now blocked access to Facebook and Twitter. The Russian telecommunications regulator, Roskomnadzor, announced that the decision to block the Facebook platform was based on the company’s “discrimination” against Russian media. Roskomnadzor said there were at least 26 cases of discrimination... 

The landmark legal decision comes amid a growing row over the US tech giant’s failure to remove illegal material online. A court in Moscow has fined Google 7.2 billion rubles (around $98.1 million) for repeatedly failing to take down banned content. The decision marks the first time an IT company has faced financial penalties based on the scale of their turnover in Russia. On Friday, a judge... 

Officials in Moscow have issued a sternly-worded ultimatum to YouTube’s parent company, Google, saying the video streaming site could face restrictions after it took down two channels run by RT’s German-language service. In the statement, released on Wednesday morning, the country’s national media regulator, Roskomnadzor, said that it “demands all restrictions be lifted from the YouTube channels... 

Russian lovers of adult content could soon be forced to ask their government for permission before they can access saucy snaps and spicy clips online, with a public services portal acting as the gateway to all legal pornography. The new proposals, from Moscow’s General Radio Frequency Centre, a subsidiary of state media watchdog Roskomnadzor, would see X-rated material shuttered away in an adults-only... 

Russia’s telecom and media watchdog Roskomnadzor has blocked all BlackBerry websites, having thus deprived owners of BlackBerry smartphones of the possibility to access their settings and personal accounts. In response to complaints, Russian officials redirect all questions to Canada, where BlackBerry devices are made. BlackBerry smartphones are known for their security protection and thus enjoy... 

After previous warnings Russian internet watchdog Roskomnadzor announced on Monday it will order the blockage of a Wikipedia page on preparing and using a cannabis-containing drug, despite fears that this will bar the whole site on Russia’s territory. Roskomnadzor issued an official warning to Wikipedia last Friday asking the Russian branch of the project to delete the page that detailed the procedure... 

The scandal over illegal data interception by US security services questions the correlation between the US and international law, and senior Russian officials are calling for an urgent update in Russian legislation in response. Russia will not ignore the actions of the US authorities who had admitted leaks of personal data of Russian citizens to which the US security services had access, the Foreign...