By Alexander Marrow and Gleb Stolyarov
(Reuters) -Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor said on Wednesday it had blocked the internet performance tool Speedtest, run by U.S. company Ookla, due to what it described as threats to Russia’s internet security.
Foreign tech companies, including the likes of Alphabet, Meta and Apple, have been under pressure in Russia for several years over the content they distribute and where they store their data.
Roskomnadzor said access to Speedtest had been restricted in accordance with a 2020 decree “due to identified threats to the security of public communications network operation and the Russian segment of the internet”.
Ookla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“Roskomnadzor recommends using trusted Russian services,” Roskomnadzor said, naming an application developed in Russia called ProSet, or ProNet in English, that performs similar online speed and signal strength tests.
Russia has long sought to establish what it calls digital sovereignty by promoting home-grown services, a push that became more urgent as some Western companies pulled out of the Russian market following Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow has blocked social networks like Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, sought to slow down the speed of YouTube and has told messaging app WhatsApp to prepare to leave the Russian market, with a new state-controlled messaging app, MAX, preparing to fill the gap.
In a report published on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said Russia’s government was increasing its technological capacities and control over the country’s internet infrastructure, allowing for more widespread blocking and throttling of unwanted websites and censorship circumvention tools.
“For years, Russian authorities have been meticulously expanding their legal and technological tools to carve out Russia’s section of the internet into a tightly controlled and isolated forum,” said Anastasiia Kruope, assistant Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Lawmakers have approved a new law that tightens censorship and could have sweeping ramifications for digital privacy, with Russians facing fines if they search online for content Moscow considers “extremist”.
Human Rights Watch noted that Russians face higher risks of having their personal data passed on to law enforcement.
Russia’s digital development ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Human Rights Watch report.
(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov and Alexander Marrow; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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