Russia has plummeted to the bottom of the internet freedom rankings following the blocking of Telegram
Russia has fallen to second-to-last place in the global internet freedom rankings following an increase in censorship and blocking measures, particularly targeting the Telegram messaging app.
This is according to a study by the Cloudwards portal.
Analysts assessed the level of internet censorship based on four criteria: access to torrents, adult content, political content, and VPN services. The calculations used data from OONI Explorer, Freedom House, as well as official documents and court rulings.
According to the results, Russia scored only 4 points out of a possible 100, placing it among the countries with the strictest restrictions—alongside China, Iran, and Pakistan.
North Korea ranked last with a score of zero—most of its citizens have no internet access at all.
Researchers note that the level of censorship worldwide has been rising in recent years due to political and security factors, and a number of countries systematically restrict access to global platforms such as X, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok.
Additionally, a large-scale mobile network outage has been reported in the Belgorod region. On March 18, authorities resorted to a complete shutdown of mobile internet for the first time.
Earlier, the authorities in St. Petersburg officially announced restrictions on mobile internet access, citing security measures as the reason.
Internet access was lost in the building of the Russian State Duma amid widespread network restrictions in Moscow.
