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Now this is getting worse, especially for the ordinary and innocent Russian citizens who are already suffering economic problems! They don’t deserve this to be honest, just like what China did to their citizens!

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-blocks-facebook-twitter/ (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia-blocks-facebook-twitter/)

A huge blow for the citizens, foreigners and overseas workers who worked there using FB and Twitter as their main source of communication to the rest of the world. As the economy continues to collapse in Russia due to the ongoing conflict between Putin’s government and Ukraine. Not sure if they are also banning Messenger, Whatsapp and Instagram since it’s part of Meta.

I have amazing crypto friends from Russia, and I even met some of them in person before the pandemic began. Now it means that they are going to use VPN in order to access Facebook and Twitter. I just feel bad and sorry for them. I don’t know what is going on with the Russian media regulator’s head right now. Maybe he was ordered by Putin or so.

There are also Filipinos who are working there as OFWs in Russia. Not only that they are struggling to send remittances to their families because of the stiff sanctions made by the West (especially taking off SWIFT), they are going to find it difficult to communicate to their loved ones and friends.

This decision alone in blocking social media sites would make the economy go even worse in my opinion!

I don’t know what would be your opinion about this guys. It pains me to be honest, as I’ve already felt what they’re feeling right now in getting isolated from the world.

Well, taking a closer step in looking into the Russian invassion on Ukraine and the implications that we are currently seeing part of, Putin had an intention before the engagement of this war which is best known to him and also design an alternative as an escape route should in case things doesn't work as expected, that's why you see him being muted when asked if he has intention of invading Ukraine.

Secondly from my own perspective, i see Russia maybe trying to emulate what China did by blocking all international service providers and their satellites in China thereby building its own from within, using their own Chinese google and internet and all other social and economical services both online and in physical as within China such as vehicles, phones, home appliances etc. All were China home made and their official language is Chinese. Possibly this may be one of Putin reasons to stir up war, got disconnected from the SWIFT service providers and later come up with it own system from within and this will help them maintain more privacy and i think that's why they wanted to first conquer Ukraine which may be use as an entry point by EU, US or any other foreign country.

Here we know the role of social media is controlled by whom and for what purpose? there was no other way than incident after incident, sanctions were too late and became a monthly month for Russia. until recently the authorities also sent a letter via email to ICANN asking for the Internet to be turned off in Russia. However, 3 days later ICANN refused the request. we see there is fear about the true message being closed. We certainly want independent media and also present information not for political purposes. rather it provides information to anyone that the situation can be known by all elements of citizens in the world, whether the news from Russia or news from Ukraine. If social media is for that, then there are parties who benefit and those who are disadvantaged. let us consume news and filter according to the realm we control.

I cannot help but think about what you said with the people just working there but from different countries. They need to contact their families for updates about this war and political issues but now they can't. They will be forced to subscribe for a VPN which will add to their monthly spending while they are there to save money for their relatives and remit more.
But, this is one country's issue and all they can do is wait. I hate war more than anything and I think Putin is trying to make a point especially with USA but this really has to stop.

really very concerned for the Russian people,
I'm not defending Putin here, we take the positive side of blocking social media in the wake of war, because as we know social media is a place to share from the smallest to the big things, maybe the main purpose of blocking is so that it doesn't become public consumption and becomes news without confirmation. , so that it will make the war bigger, ( in the sense of hoax news) , but as you said the negative side of blocking the economy is not being directed because of lack of communication

It is appalling that the media in being shut down in the invasion period, I understand that it may be because of false news and information that could be going on now and dangerous for both parties but it should be managed and not to lock people out from media or communication outrightly. The use of VPN is still limited. The media is important and it is unfortunate this invasion is going this way.

China blocks facebook, twitter and other social media networks. And only allows their citizen to look at state controlled media. But as far as I know people can still use facebook and other social media platforms using VPN. So the Russian citizens I am sure are doing the same. Using a VPN to access facebook and the media. So they still can communicate with their "loved ones". As for sending money/remittance, they can use bitcoin. Would take only few seconds.

Russia is getting increasingly more authoritarian, even though they didn't even introduce martial law to set up these limitations. This will no doubt hit simple people in Russia hardest, but in a situation like this, ask yourself the following question: do you think about people in Nazi Germany who didn't oppose Hitler as innocents? If yes, then I suppose you can call Russians innocent as well. But I believe in common responsibility of people, especially when the atrocities their government commits is very strong. Russia is not a completely closed and isolated from the world, and there are tons of people there. They can protest, they can block military bases, they can strike, etc. Watching what's going on and yet being silent about it or, worse, inviting pity because they're suffering from the sanctions is not fair right now, when there are people who are dying from the war and its consequences. Why are people in Ukraine opposing Russian armed forces, even though some of them do get killed when those forces open fire, and people in Russia are sooo afraid of their own police? If there were enough people to protest, they could easily overcome their police, like Ukrainians did back in 2014.

The method used by the Russian government by blocking social media such as FB and Twitter is a classic method used by the communist government, just like what the Chinese government did.

... the best way to get around this block is to use a VPN, there are several free VPN providers that people can use like Cloudflare WARP or ProtonVPN.

It is painful because citizens that has nothing to do with the war are hugely affected. If it's just about messaging, AFAIK, they still have their own social network which is the vk.com and they can still talk about everything there.
But with the big impact of these bans on popular social medias, the revenue that their country might get from this and those that have businesses running on those platforms, they are truly affected.

What do you think, how many ordinary users know how to use VPN? 10% or 90%?
the enormous size of the nation will be withheld for information not coming from the government.


the main purpose of the sanctions is to force the Russian people to cancel their support for Putin. all the restrictions so far have been aimed at them.

For what I have read this is nothing more but retaliation for what Putin considers a biased coverage of the war, according to him those platforms are allowing the side of the US to express their views freely on their platforms while blocking their vision and as such he has chosen to block them in their country, honestly I am not surprised as control of the media is a basic tactic when a country is in the middle of a war, however blocking those platforms completely does not look good at all and without a doubt it will affect a significant portion of the Russian population which was using those platforms.

Its not really possible to stop the communication unless the entire internet is shutdown there but I guess it won't happen. Still we can use emails for communication though I am just saying the practical solution and also there are lot of other social media maybe new messenger apps maybe created by and for Russia if they can't able to use whatsapp or Facebook.

What the real pain is they are facing financial issues, lot of investors funds were stuck and innocent sportsperson banned from participation and lot more.

They can use any alternatives such as telegram and signal for encrypted messages and as long that the internet is up and can be used in Russia.

Many of them did protest coz they are the most affected, but reported that their government "arrests" anyone who participates this kind of activity so they are really in difficult times now risking their lives in the hands of their government.

The ban represents an opportunity to increase the number of users, as there is Telegram and the Russian Facebook VK, Segnal and some alternative applications.

Restricting access to social media has proven to be a failure, and citizens will get news from the sources they want unless a comprehensive internet ban is implemented.

For money transfers, the problem is more complex, there is Bitcoin, which will be a great example, and some methods of transferring on the black market, but as I said, the fees will be higher and more difficult.

Doesn't Russia have their own version(s) of FB, Twitter, and all those other social media platforms?  I was listening to the news yesterday and I could swear I hear them reference something of that nature.  It'd surprise me if Russia relied on any Western-supplied social media platform--and same goes for any country in that region.

If that isn't true and they do rely on Facebook, Twitter, and the rest then yeah I'd say that's not going to help things at all.  I don't think losing social media is the worst of their economic problems, though.  Any country could survive that, I think.  Russians have to worry about hyperinflation and the effects of all these sanctions being imposed on them by the rest of the world, effects I don't think have yet started to make themselves felt by the average Russian, i.e., any Russian who isn't one of these oligarchs they keep talking about.

We'll see, though.  I feel for the Russian people, because they're not the ones who created this insanity--and yet it's pretty much a given they're the ones who're going to feel the impact of Putin's political decisions.  Ugh.

Yes, they have VK (VKontakte) and probably their most popular communicator is Telegram. That doesn't mean they don't use FB, twitter or tiktok. There's also many youtubers and twitch streamers in Russia. All these people got blocked from making money because these companies rely on SWIFT.


A lot of Russians don't use the Internet, don't watch the news besides maybe government channels that spread lies and brainwash them. There are videos made by people who tried to show pictures from Ukraine to Russian citizens and most of them did not even know that there is war, or they thought that it's just a small military operation against some oppressors who are discriminating Russians living in Ukraine.

To be fair twitter or facebook is not really that important for the ordinary Russian citizen. If you have a business there, that is heavily based on Russians being on facebook or twitter or whatever, then it would impact you, but most of these goes back to rich people anyway, even the smaller business owner that relies on this could find a Russian alternative, but the big media companies would have to be the ones that got hurt the most out of this.

Aside from that, there are so many more wrong things, the worst I have heard was Russian students getting kicked out of some schools in Europe. If you are a child of an oligarch that supports Putin, then I would understand but aside from that, there is absolutely no reason for such a thing.

It is the time for them to use their own social applications I guess. There are ways for them to communicate aside from Facebook and messenger. Another is there are so many programmers in Russia and they could've geeked it out. The government is doing all it can to stop people getting information about the outside world. The citizens in Russia in prone in propaganda right now, so anything like Facebook could instigate it, that is a reason to block it.

The situation is not favorable if you are not a Russian yourself and just staying in Russia, for work or other reasons. You can always find a way how to communicate in outside world but how about the financial aspect? Like for example, if you are working in this country and you want to send remittance to your family outside. Since there are financial sanctions in Russia, your options are limited. So in this case, I believe people need to learn how to transact crypto. Because with the presence of internet, they can send crypto to their families outside without using third party financial system.

It gets worse. Today a few hours ago. Visa and MasterCard shut down their services in all of Russia. Don’t know how it is there but in North America, everybody pays with credit cards because it’s secure, fast and you get to collect points. So now everybody in Russia won’t be able to pay this way.

Businesses will suffer. And many citizens will suffer also. These sanctions I think are really going to upset the Russian people and they are doing this to they hopefully rebel against Putin and put a stop to this war so everything is reversed.

Economic effects of Russia blocking FB and Twitter?What economic effects?Most of the people aren't making money via social media websites.They just use social media for communication and wasting their free time.If FB,Twitter,Whatsapp,Instagram and Messenger get blocked,there are alternatives.Telegram still isn't blocked and what about Discord or Slack.They could use the Tor network as an alternative as well.I'm sure that Facebook bans users for using VPNs.
Not all Russian banks are excluded from SWIFT.The Filipino workers in Russia could simply switch the bank,or even use crypto(if they know how to use it).
The power of all those western sanctions is a little bit exaggerated.They will damage the Russian economy,but I don't think that they will trigger some kind of economic disaster in Russia.

Blocking social networks is not the biggest problem, although nothing good will come from creating information isolation from the outside world. What creates more problems is that many companies stop supplying their products, which allowed people to work and make a living with it.

Here are some (I looked into the IT field, but of course, other areas are also experiencing difficulties.) of the examples:
- Microsoft stops selling its products and services.
- Adobe (Photoshop, Illustrator,etc) stops selling its products and services.
- Developers from all over the world are discussing the need to disable GitHub in Russia.
- Airbnb stops working on the Russian territory.

- Dell, Lenovo, Cisco Systems Inc, Apple, Intel, AMD, Ericsson, HP, Intel and many others stopped supplying their products.

This list is expanding every day with new companies from different fields.

Now even buying a working PC or laptop is impossible. It is also impossible to purchase the necessary software for work. It is impossible to rent housing for living and working. How can people make a living in these conditions? And it looks like this is just the beginning.

I find that mutual punishment is not an effective solution to peace. Showing strength to each other will only add to the tension. What people need right now is to get back to life as normally as possible. There is no epidemic, war... But let's see how the leadership acts, and we can only wait if nothing can be done.

People who really need it for work or something important will just use a VPN or tor. Imo problems with payments will be far more concerning. Lots of employers would rather find a new worker than consider paying in crypto.

Russia is simply responding to sanctions, and it is logical that it will ban everything they can, although any Russian citizen can still circumvent such a ban by using VPN (which can be an additional cost), or perhaps by using TOR (although I don't know if those services work through that browser). In addition, Russia has its own version of FB, I think it's called VKontakte and has a very large number of users.


I sympathize with all those who are against the war and who are protesting in Russia, but for a country of 150 million people, there are very few who oppose the war - and whether the reason is that they support it or fear their dictator remains a question. Although sanctions will not affect what Russia is doing in Ukraine in the short term, they must be ruthless and without exception. I am quite sure that the people in Ukraine are much worse than those in Russia, and the Russian machine must be weakened and stopped in some way - otherwise, some other countries will be attacked, and then we will not be able to avoid a world war.

Even if they cancel support for Putin, they'll be arrested for what they're standing for. Too bad that the Russian people doesn't have a choice. Despite that they like to cancel and stop supporting Putin, they're forced to do it because they're at risk of being jailed.
It has now come to this point that Putin should realize that he's doing no good to his people and he's just pushing his own agenda against Ukraine.

Yes they are using VPNs. If you go and look at the most downloaded app by country you will see a big shift from regular apps like Facebook or Twitter to pretty much mostly VPNs.

Wonder how the VPN will handle this. They are a medium however depending what country they are located in, that country might have sanctions and if they do they will most likely have to abide by the rules.

Another issue is how will they pay for the VPN since credit cards are blocked in their country.

It was the after-war effect. Even people who weren't involved in the war felt it. More and more people will be affected by the war. This will probably be worse than what China will experience due to social media restrictions for its citizens. Even though they may still be using a VPN, it won't be long since they might get caught by the government.

It is difficult for the Russian people because they struggle to survive and are still forced to keep supporting Putin. Putin is truly on the verge of trouble with the war he has started.

Is it really unclear why Facebook and Twitter are blocked in Russia? Over the past eight years of Russia’s hybrid war against Ukraine, the people of Russia have been deliberately zombified by the Putin regime about the presence of some kind of fascists and nationalists in Ukraine, so more than half of the Russian population supported Putin’s aggression and lauded the seizure of Ukrainian territory.

But in 11 days of a full-scale war in Ukraine, Russia's losses are so significant that Putin decided to close social networks for them to prevent information about the losses from spreading. So, today, according to the official data of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the losses of the Russian Federation in Ukraine are:
- more than 11,000 killed,
- 290 destroyed tanks,
- 999 armored vehicles,
- 46 aircraft,
- 68 helicopters,
- 117 artillery systems,
- 50 salvo fire systems,
- 23 air defense systems,
- 454 different vehicles,
- 3 warships, etc.

But is the population of Russia so innocent? These are innocent women and children who are now massively dying in Ukraine under rocket and bomb attacks by Russian soldiers, that is, someone's husbands, sons and fathers of this innocent population of Russia. This is only a small part of what awaits the Russians in the near future. You have to pay for everything, and for the criminal inaction of the people as well.

I did not read the whole content of the article, but with this news I guess some of the people in Russian that has been suffocated by the economic sanctions have been fighting against their own government.
That's the reason why Russia blocked the mainstream social media to avoid the spread of the news coming around from Russia.
This is typically a Chinese type of move.
This war will only cause death and chaos to the innocent lives in Ukraine, and a livelihood suffering from the Russian people and for the overseas  workers that's based in Russia.

I am just reading the reactions of some people from Russia who have been affected by this part of the sanctions. One of them complains PayPal is stopped the Twitch network also, its main source of income is closed. He can't use VPN for PayPal, it doesn't help him at all.
What he can change overnight to secure his existence, especially in current conditions which are very limited.

btw. He ^Putin can arrest 100 or 2000 people, but can he arrest 2 or 5 million people?

Exact, there are some campaings which collect money to give Russian the possiblity to buy VPN plans in order to be able to read source other than the Russian propaganda. I think young Russians who are very familiar with technology already managed to get VPN or TOR access.

Economically, it's not going to hurt either Russia or these Silicon Valley companies. Losing Russia isn't probably not a big deal for the Tech Giants, they probably earn more elsewhere.

Socially though, this is a disaster for the Russian people. They've been effectively censored and also now have to rely on state-owned media for their updates.

The problem is not accessibility, but from an economic perspective where Russians usually do business. The blocking of social media only wants to limit western news which they think is a lot to corner Russia. On the other hand, these platforms also have advertising services that (probably) use global payment methods which are currently being discontinued in that country. So that it can be said, the use of a VPN does not mean anything for business people who usually use Facebook or Twitter ads.

How do you know all this? Russians in your understanding are born who do not know how to use the Internet, drink vodka, and do not know about the state of affairs? Which one of you is in the greater illusion? Who is brainwashing with such nonsense?

The Russian government had no choice but to shut down social networks since these two networks spread lies. And to get real news, Russia has sources, in addition to Facebook and Twitter, where the normal and correct information is available.
I am not a Russian, but I watch the news, both English and Russian, and I want to see those who, after the completion of all the events, will express really competent conclusions.

Of course, he can't, but the problem is that not even 1% of Russians are protesting against the war, which means that 99% support him or are afraid to take to the streets and show what they think of their president. The fear is logical if we know that underage children ended up behind bars just because they had anti-war banners.

I believe that for the benefit of Ukraine, but also other non-NATO countries (Sweden, Finland, Moldova) that may be hit next, sanctions must be even tougher and uncompromising - people must rebel en masse against the current regime and this is the only way to stop the war.

The decision of the Russian government to block Facebook services in that country is increasingly making it difficult for Russian citizens to interact with the outside world now, the reason for the Russian government may be quite reasonable in my opinion, because so far Facebook continues to discriminate against Russian media in reporting what actually happened, in other words Facebook and Twitter has made a Putin leadership a fear in the eyes of today world.
But I'm quite curious whether Russia only blocks Facebook or they will also do the same to WhatsApp and Instagram?
Because as far as I know WhatsApp and Instagram are social media which are also under meta companies.

shut themselves off from products (social media) that come from outside Russia, it seems that Russia and China already have the same thoughts...

Those who live in Russia and have relatives and friends who are outside Russia will find it very difficult to maintain communication. Currently the majority of Russian citizens use Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, the communist government has a very strict attitude towards their citizens and it will be very difficult for Russian citizens to be able to object to their government, the best way for Russian citizens is to use VPN.

 Websites can't be banned in this day and age and that has to be a lesson for everyone. I mean our government tried to ban some places as well, but they failed miserably, because we all just used VPN and moved on. Even today there are some websites that are blocked, and we are still using it without a problem. So all in all there is absolutely no way to keep Russian people from using any of these websites, there is no way to keep anyone away from these websites, they will just use VPN and still reach it. Which goes to show you that, all these sanctions could be waltz around and find a better method, and not keep anyone in russia, stay away from rest of the world.

I'm worried about the older citizens that are not used to technologies because they are the ones that will be affected, we know that older people love to use social media nowadays especially facebook but if this one thing that makes them happy will get banned, what are they going to do now? their lives are going to be boring.

Let's hope there are youngsters that are going to be concerned with them and help them set up a VPN so that they can continue their access on the social media sites. Nice to know that there are people that are also concerned about Russia, I thought all the people now are collecting donations to help the Ukrainians I was wrong with this.

Upwork and a few other freelance platforms announced today that they will ban Russians. So banning of Facebook is gonna be one of the last problems for Russian workers. If sanctions will keep mounting, Russia will be as isolated as Iran and NK, so fleeing will be the only hope for ordinary Russians to experience the pre-war life.

How do you know if their citizens (young and old) are actually using the western apps facebook or twitter and not their own VK or other regional social media apps?

According to this blog (https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/top-8-russian-social-networks-makes-great/) written in 2020, VK is ranked first with 97 million active users (most popular among youngsters aged 18-34). OK.ru, which is said to be popular among older gens, comes in second with 71 million users. Facebook and Twitter are 4th and 6th respectively.

Apart from these platforms tiktok have stopped its services in Russia. More sanctions keeps counting. Russia needs to make some fast moves against the sanctions if not the sufferers will be the citizens and not Putin. He has got good wealth to enjoy his lifetime. Anyhow the good thing, in war people are helping each other in some way. This time much seen with the polish, Hungarian, slovakian people.

The Websites cannot be banned if we use a VPN service. But what worries Russians most is the rumor that Russia will completely shut down the global internet on March 11, 2022. In March 2019, Russia ran a test of Private Internet, which will disconnect from the rest of the world but keep the Internet working for its citizens. The same way North Korea is doing with its own country. This is really terrible for citizens living in Russia.
https://i.ibb.co/v16JH9K/Screenshot-2022-03-08-090838.png (https://ibb.co/CB3nzLT)

This isn't terrible, because they themselves trying to isolate and test. If I'm not wrong every first world country will have this prepared and tested. Only Russia and North Korea revealed it to the world. Before making such tests countries need to analyse whether they can self fulfill their needs without foreign investment and imports. Each and every country have some form of dependence over the other.

You're right. I had to laugh for a long time when I read that the only joy for the elderly in Russia is Facebook and Twitter. What can be in a person's head when he had this thought?
I just want to say that there are many sites and social networks where people in Russia can communicate among themselves. Moreover, someone is worried about WhatsApp turning off, but again, the relatives of Russian people living abroad are not stupid people. They will easily switch to social networks that are available in Russia.
The whole problem is not worth the trouble.

The Russian government blocking Facebook and other social media is not a very important thing to worry about.  This is not a basic human need that if they do not play social media then they will die.  So whatever it is and whatever the reason, this is only a little disturbing for the user's comfort but psychologically they will immediately switch to applications that are still allowed.  Humans have a basic nature that is easy to change according to their needs and desires.  Moreover, this condition is a retaliation for the prohibition measures taken by Europe and the US on Russia.

I agree that banning some social networks will not have any effect on anyone's economy, there are always some alternatives! Maybe on an individual level, this situation affects some people, some people have been making money on some platforms and now they will not be able to do it, but they will also manage to find alternatives somehow!
However, we are talking about social networks, we can live without them! And at the moment because of the strong propaganda on both sides, and that isn't very interesting, too many lies and deceptions, so it's better to move away from them for mental health if nothing else!

Each and every country is dependent on each other because at some point we all need it and if the Russian could disconnect from the rest of the world but keep the Internet working for its citizens have you guys thought about the long span they can keep the internet working?
Having said that, I think we need a political solution cause the masses should be the ones paying for some people's political ambition.
I watch a video of a Russian soldier which was rescue, cloth and fed by the Ukrainian. Honestly, this need to be stop.

Puttin has had it figured it before the invasion of Ukraine took place. Puttin plans to protect his sovereignty based on the severe sanctions given to them by taking Russia's fate into his hand. Not by being at the mercy and controlled by others.

Russia is aiming to build its internet, social media platforms, technology industry and its own e-commerce companies. Just the way China did theirs. China's are the main allies of Russians

I fully agree with, blocking access to social media is wrong and hurts the average citizen. Unfortunately this is part of the whole new censorship strategy in Russia. Its not only social media, but also the big news companies and radio stations that are getting censored. Many journalist had to leave Russia because of the new law, that threatened to imprison journalist for up to 15 years.
If using social media for work, things are even more terrible. I don't think that the average person in Russia losing his job is going to make Putin change his mind. From Russia I only knew a few people and they told me that they are using Telegram more than the Meta Services, also tiktok seems more popular than Instagram. Maybe people can switch to other services instead. Blocking and censoring Internet access in China and Russia both is wrong, and I hope that people can use VPNs without getting into trouble.

But China did not start a war to achieve all that. Russia under Putin is power drunk and does not care whatever happens to anyone for him to achieve whatever his mind is chasing. He should have banned his citizens from using social media and created his own applications without getting into war. Putin will end up destroying himself like Hitler. Maybe somebody in his cabinet will shoot the idiot in the face soon and end all this.

What is worst?

1. Getting your house blown up by the Russian army and losing all your earthly belongings or even worst...one of your family members!

or

2. Losing access to your Social media account, because your government wanted to invade another country?

Let's not forget that Social media are also being used as a Propaganda tool by some Russian people and they are trying to justify this war. I have seen some Russian people celebrating the invasion and also mocking Ukrainian people on social media.

There are always two sides to a story..... and unfortunately sanctions are one of the effective tools to stop aggressors from continuing their actions or even funding it with these tools.  ::) (Example - International money transfers though SWIFT to receive payment for Oil and Gas)

The story says the social media ban is by Russia itself and not the EU or any international community blocking them. You think if the Russians celebrate and mock Ukrainian people on social media will not be to their advantage? The reason for Putin putting a social media ban on his country is because he knows that, America and the EU will eventually ban Russia. It will happen.

If they are banning Facebook, then they are definitely banning WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger as well since these apps are owned by the same Facebook (Meta). But, did they state why they decided to ban these social media platforms in their country? Or did they ban it because they didn’t want citizens in the country going on a full rampage on these platforms to criticize the government?

But, it is very bad for a government to do such a thing and prevent people from having access to information and being able to connect with the world. The actions that they have taken is in no way going to be helping them, because things will just keep getting worse, and it’s just very bad.

"Now this is getting worse, especially for the ordinary and innocent Russian citizens who are already suffering economic problems!" - there are no ordinary innocent citizens of Russia. They are as guilty as the people of Germany who voted for Hitler and his party. They voted for Putin's party, they supported his decisions, they still support mass terrorism and the killing of civilians in Ukraine. I am a citizen of Ukraine, I know what I'm talking about.

And all the blocking of Internet resources was started by RUSSIA ITSELF 5 years ago !!! They blocked access to free media, they forced to provide access to instant messengers FOR ILLEGAL eavesdropping of people, and persecution. And now you're out of regret? This is all a consequence of the implementation of the new regime of fascism, which is being developed by Putin and his gang of global kleptomaniac terrorists....

I am pretty sure that it was both. I mean surely sanctioning against these companies means that they could send a message to the world saying if the companies there are getting off of Russia and not sell products there, then they could also ban companies as well and not allow them to work in Russia.

However, at the same time it is focused on social media, they could have done it with clothing companies and all of that, Burger King decided not to leave for example, they could have been kicked off, but it was social media, why? And that part is because of citizens, if citizens can write whatever they want here, then it would be danger bells for Russian oligarchs and Putin, so they went with facebook and twitter and so forth.

In the short term, of course, it will have no effect, but in the long term, there will be a lot of economic impact because most e-commerce in Russia also relies heavily on Twitter and Facebook to help marketing.

I would guess that just like China did it, they will be able to get some sort of "Russian version" of all of these and just cater to Russian citizens. They will of course always want to deal with rest of the world, but at the very least they could connect all of Russia together somehow and that means something.

If there is like some marketplace where everyone uses, such as amazon, but a Russian version, and it can get enough traction, that would be great (maybe there is one) and if there is a facebook, or twitter, or whatever social media then that would be great too. I would still assume that getting all of the world out of their network doesn't make sense, like China is cool enough with them right?

My sympathy goes to innocent people who are suffering especially to those who can't contact their families in Russia but I believe that they could still find an alternative way. I guess it isn't the worst scenario to cry for but those who are losing their loved ones because of the war. Children and innocent people are dying. The main goal of others is just to survive and live during this war. Yes, the blocking and banning might affect the economy in the coming days but it's a matter of life and death for innocent lives.

From my point of view Russia can never emulate what china did and they know it. First of all there is a big difference between China's and Russia's human recourses. Second reason is technologies. the reason why Russia stir up the war is that they can't give up because of domestic politics(incoming elections.) they always try to make something on the geopolitical level to have a success on the domestic level. Another reason is that Ukraine is very important for Russia to control part of the Europe(making buffers).

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Now I'm watching social survey in the streets and people say that they don't want to make any comment about this political environment because of fear. Conclusion: Some people won't raise their voice unless the regime does not hurt you personally and sometimes I understand this situation, they have daughters, mothers and etc...

Yes, I agree with you, for me Russia has the potential to do it, the Russians cannot be underestimated, if I know anything about the Russians it is that they are very intelligent beings and that they handle privileged and high-level information, then since there is infrastructure and knowledge, only an ally like China would raise it in less than 1 quarter, I think that social networks are a means where the Russians will be able to live without them, and without the need to monetize them, they will look for a way, the bad thing is that they are giving them the tools Russia to be even stronger, when all this conflict is over, Russia will not only have the experience of all those who are capable of turning their backs on it, but will also have the ability to prevent the same thing from happening to them in another attempt, so I don't know what it is better if they continue with the sanctions or that they eventually surrender and stop the deaths and that Russia take control so that the innocent do not continue to die unjustly, and those children who are not to blame for what is happening ndo, but they are the ones who suffer the most, the truth is I don't know what is better at the moment.

I am not sure how blocking of social media will make an impact on the Russian economy. The reason for the blockage might be that all the propaganda and the information can be shared easily with these social media platforms and they wanted to curb that freedom during the time of a war. The fact is we can overcome this blockage with proxies and VPN and now a days everyone uses them to overcome these restrictions.

Even in short term, you can already see the negative effect, just imagine, a multimillion-dollar online business is down for at least one day, they lose a ton of money if that will happen, so this action kills their industry and that's the sacrifice they have to take for starting this war.

Email?  :D Most Russians don't use Facebook or Twitter anyway, but the Russian alternatives like Vk.com or Mail.ru. They are certainly not cut off from the outside world. The complete economic impact for Facebook and Twitter etc. is rather marginal, as Russia is rather a small market with few inhabitants with purchasing power (apart from the few oligarchs and families).

Well I think that these things in RUSSIA at least for the general population that is very used if it has some impact, although there is a Russian social network called VK that is very popular, however I am not sure if everyone is already using VPN for skipping all those prohibitions, I think that the Russians have already taken their precautions to avoid being left isolated, we cannot suffocate a people so much when its ruler has all the freedoms, the fact that they block everything, this will make their citizens collapse and although they are not suffering loss of life as in the Ukraine, the level of stress is unique to them.

When the war is of course the government must fully control all information, social media of course gives freedom to anyone to write news so that the russian government banned social media, for the short term of course this is very detrimental because on the other hand social media is good but I'm sure when conditions are normal the Russian government immediately reopened access to social media.

Yes, indeed now the Russian people are helping VPNs a lot, but if everyone uses it, sooner or later they will understand this and take up VPN services, it will be difficult, but not impossible, to ban them. The biggest blow to ordinary citizens was the Instagram ban, it was the most popular network among citizens, now small businesses have come under distribution, because they took their main customers from Instagram. The next blow will be blocking YouTube, this will greatly affect Russia, because normal analogues simply do not exist. Normal unhindered access will be lost, people will be forced to use VPNs, no one knows how long this will last. It is unfortunate that only small businesses and ordinary citizens suffer from this.