Russia reportedly bans Snapchat and FaceTime

Roskomnadzor, Russia’s federal company for monitoring and censoring mass media, has blocked entry to Snapchat and FaceTime within the nation, Bloomberg reports, citing Russian information service Interfax. The bans had been reportedly put in place as a result of the platforms had been used “to arrange and perform terrorist acts,” and commit fraud.

It isn’t clear if both service remains to be accessible through the use of a VPN, however banning Snapchat and FaceTime suits with Russia’s crackdown on communication and social platforms that began after the nation’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Facebook and X had been blocked in March of that yr, and Instagram was added to the ban listing not lengthy after. In 2024, the encrypted messaging app Signal was additionally banned, and extra not too long ago in July 2025, Russia threatened to dam entry to WhatsApp.

Engadget has contacted each Apple and Snap to touch upon the Russian bans. We’ll replace this text if we hear again.

Banning or proscribing these platforms is a option to exert management over the place and the way dialog occurs in Russia — and stop the unfold of “LGBT propaganda,” when you consider Roskomnadzor’s reasoning for banning Roblox — nevertheless it may additionally be an try to drive folks to make use of “MAX,” a state-run tremendous app that gives providers like communication, banking and doc storage. The app is a part of a long-standing push to depend on Russia’s tech business fairly than overseas firms, and will doubtlessly give the Russian authorities a neater methodology for surveilling its residents, The New York Times reports.