Russians, by the
thousands, are switching to virtual private networks (VPNs) after Kremlin cracked
down on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. A VPN creates an
encrypted connect between a user’s device and a remote server, which can be
located anywhere in the world. Therefore, a VPN user is able to access websites
blocked in one country.

The last week has
seen a massive spike in VPN demand across Russia. The day after Russia banned
Facebook, there were nearly 260,000 searches for VPN services in the country.
Searches for VPN services have almost doubled between March 4 and March 10,
according to a Guardian report citing data from Top10VPN, a United
Kingdom-based company that reviews and recommends VPNs.

Simon Migliano,
the head of research at the company, told the Guardian that through VPNs, users
are replacing their Russian IP address with that of another remote server. This
allows them to access internet services blocking Russian traffic.

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Rising demand for
VPNs has triggered worries that Moscow may be planning to cut itself off from
the global internet circuit and deploy a China-like firewall to control and
process the free flow of information. Russian President Vladimir Putin had
already made such a suggestion in 2019.

Putin had said “we
must create a segment [of the internet] which depends on nobody.” Months after,
Kremlin confirmed that Russia had indeed tested a domestic alternative of the global
internet.

Russia’s crackdown
on social media comes at the same time social media platforms are taking an
increasingly hostile position towards Moscow. Meta, the Mark Zuckerberg-run
company that owns Facebook, recently changed its hate speech policy in some
countries to say calling for the death of Vladimir Putin or Belarusian
President Alexander Lukashenko is not hate speech.

Also Read | Meta says calling for Putin’s death not hate speech, Russia reacts

“As a result of
the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we have temporarily made allowances for forms
of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent
speech such as ‘death to the Russian invaders’. We still won’t allow credible calls
for violence against Russian civilians,” a Meta spokesperson said. In response,
Moscow has moved to designate Meta as an “extremist organization.”