\n<\/p>\n
Roskomnadzor, Russia’s federal agency for monitoring and censoring mass media, has blocked access to Snapchat and FaceTime in the country, Bloomberg<\/em> reports<\/a>, citing Russian news service Interfax. The bans were reportedly put in place because the platforms were used “to organize and carry out terrorist acts,\u201d and commit fraud.<\/p>\n It’s not clear if either service is still accessible by using a VPN, but banning Snapchat and FaceTime fits with Russia\u2019s crackdown on communication and social platforms that started after the country\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Facebook<\/a> and X<\/a> were blocked in March of that year, and Instagram<\/a> was added to the ban list not long after. In 2024, the encrypted messaging app Signal<\/a> was also banned, and more recently in July 2025, Russia threatened to block access to WhatsApp<\/a>.<\/p>\n Engadget has contacted both Apple and Snap to comment on the Russian bans. We’ll update this article if we hear back.<\/p>\n Banning or restricting these platforms is a way to exert control over where and how conversation happens in Russia \u2014 and prevent the spread of “LGBT propaganda,” if you believe Roskomnadzor’s reasoning for banning Roblox<\/a> \u2014 but it might also be an attempt to drive people to use “MAX,” a state-run super app that offers services like communication, banking and document storage. The app is part of a long-standing push to rely on Russia’s tech industry rather than foreign companies, and could potentially give the Russian government an easier method for surveilling its citizens, The New York Times<\/em> reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n