Russian authorities obstructed a record 417,000 websites in 2024 as the state continued to tighten its control online, the independent news outlet Vyorstka reported Tuesday.According to Vyorstkas analysis of information from the internet liberty NGO Roskomsvoboda, an overall of 523,000 websites were restricted last year.
Of those, access was later on brought back to roughly 106,000, leaving more than 417,000 sites completely inaccessible.Despite the record number of blockings in 2024, the greatest overall ever tape-recorded was in 2023, when authorities restricted access to 571,000 online resources.
Only 197,000 stayed obstructed by the years end.
The variety of permanently inaccessible websites in 2024 was two times that of the previous year and almost five times greater than in 2022.
At the same time, the variety of unblocked websites sharply decreased from 183,000 in 2022 and 374,000 in 2023 to simply 106,800 in 2024.
The Federal Tax Service was responsible for the highest variety of website bans in 2015, with 142,400 obstructed resources on its list at the beginning of 2025.
State interactions watchdog Roskomnadzor can be found in 2nd, restricting access to more than 132,000 sites.
An unspecified federal government company was behind the stopping of 62,100 resources, while the Moscow City Court and other judicial bodies collectively restricted more than 60,600 pages.
The Moscow City Court alone accounted for roughly 50,000 of those cases.According to a confidential Roskomsvoboda expert, the unspecified government firm which initially appeared on Roskombadzors register in November 2022 functions as a stand-in for the Prosecutor Generals Office, as the types of stoppings credited to this entity mirror those previously started by the Prosecutor Generals Office.
The factors for the reclassification stay unclear.In 2024, 85.5% of site restrictions were imposed extrajudicially.
Several government companies have the authority to issue such bans: The Interior Ministry obstructs content associated to drug circulation; the Federal Tax Service targets gambling websites; the Finance Ministry limits access to piracy websites; the Central Election Commission implements election-related constraints; and Rospotrebnadzor censors materials concerning suicide.Roskomnadzor and the Prosecutor Generals Office stay the primary enforcers of online censorship, restricting content associated to LGBTQ+ concerns; materials from people and companies identified as foreign agents; articles considered to spread incorrect info about the armed force; and details about preventing government-imposed internet restrictions.Since March 2024, Roskomnadzor has likewise magnified its efforts to block virtual private network (VPN) services and limit access to articles discussing how to gain access to obstructed sites.