<\/p>\n
This fall, mobile Internet has finally begun to\u00a0return to\u00a0Russia\u2019s regions after months of\u00a0regular shutdowns<\/a>, allegedly<\/a> imposed to\u00a0counter the threat of\u00a0Ukrainian drone strikes. But what\u2019s coming back isn\u2019t full access to\u00a0the web \u2014 it\u2019s a\u00a0\u201cwhitelist\u201d of\u00a0Kremlin-approved sites accessible even when the rest of\u00a0the mobile Internet is\u00a0cut\u00a0off. We\u00a0asked our readers in\u00a0Russia to\u00a0share their experiences with the new system. Below are some of\u00a0the most notable responses, translated into English.<\/p>\n The following responses have been lightly edited and abridged for length and clarity.A., Voronezh<\/p>\n The \u201clist\u201d first went live here on\u00a0September 16. Mobile Internet went down again, but unlike before, some services still worked normally: VK, Wildberries, even the eXpress messenger, which is\u00a0supposed to\u00a0be\u00a0our official work chat (though in\u00a0practice, everyone uses another one that\u2019s blocked).<\/p>\n Objectively, it\u00a0does feel like having the whitelist is\u00a0better than nothing. It\u2019s like having a\u00a0flashlight instead of\u00a0a\u00a0candle when the power goes\u00a0out. But the idea that someone might decide everyone\u2019s satisfied and that no\u00a0one really needs the other sites is\u00a0depressing.<\/p>\n As\u00a0for sites and apps not on\u00a0the whitelist, I\u00a0can only access them through home Internet with a\u00a0VPN, which I\u00a0constantly have to\u00a0turn on\u00a0and\u00a0off. Some things won\u2019t work without it, others won\u2019t work with it.<\/p>\n M., Nizhny Novgorod<\/p>\n Some of\u00a0the whitelisted services work. Yandex and VKontakte open, but the rest don\u2019t \u2014 including [the Russian government\u2019s public services portal] Gosuslugi and banking.<\/p>\n I\u2019m completely dissatisfied. To\u00a0access other sites, I\u00a0have to\u00a0rely on\u00a0public Wi-Fi around the city: smart bus stops, shopping malls, and so\u00a0on.<\/p>\n Our only hope is\u00a0you.\u00a0Support Meduza<\/a>\u00a0before it\u2019s too late.N., Krasnoyarsk<\/p>\n I\u00a0call taxis from home and download podcasts in\u00a0advance. Everyone in\u00a0my\u00a0neighborhood ends up\u00a0standing around in\u00a0supermarkets for the free Wi-Fi. Taxi drivers ask, \u201cWhere are we\u00a0headed?\u201d and also try to\u00a0catch free Wi-Fi.<\/p>\n Anonymous, Volgograd region<\/p>\n I\u00a0encountered the \u201cwhitelist\u201d for the first time a\u00a0few days\u00a0ago. From about 10:30 p.m. until six or\u00a0seven in\u00a0the morning, MegaFon didn\u2019t work at\u00a0all (you could still make calls, but there was no\u00a0Internet). On\u00a0Beeline, only RuTube, Ozon, Yandex\u2019s search site, and Zen loaded. Try opening google.com in\u00a0the browser \u2014 no\u00a0Internet. But the Yandex page came right up.<\/p>\n Of\u00a0course I\u2019m not happy about the whitelist! Honestly, it\u2019s complete crap (sorry, but I\u2019m furious). Reliable sources of\u00a0information, video games, Wikipedia, ChatGPT, cloud services, Twitch \u2014 basically everything I\u00a0use \u2014 stopped working. I\u00a0try not to\u00a0use those crappy Russian services. Oh, and Google Play didn\u2019t work either, so\u00a0I\u00a0couldn\u2019t update any apps.<\/p>\n Mapping Russia\u2019s Internet blackouts The Russian authorities keep shutting down mobile Internet. Here\u2019s where it happens most, and how the outages are spreading.<\/a>Mapping Russia\u2019s Internet blackouts The Russian authorities keep shutting down mobile Internet. Here\u2019s where it happens most, and how the outages are spreading.<\/a>I., Tula<\/p>\n At\u00a0first, during the mobile Internet shutdowns, nothing worked. Now they\u2019ve brought these services back, so\u00a0things are a\u00a0little easier. At\u00a0least I\u00a0can watch a\u00a0movie at\u00a0home in\u00a0the evenings. I\u00a0don\u2019t have wired Internet at\u00a0home. I\u00a0used to\u00a0get by\u00a0with mobile Internet and a\u00a0router with a\u00a0SIM card. That stopped working in\u00a0June. In\u00a0September, the whitelist appeared. At\u00a0least now I\u00a0can order a\u00a0taxi \u2014 before that, it\u00a0was difficult, so\u00a0I\u00a0relied on\u00a0public transport.<\/p>\n To\u00a0access sites outside the whitelist, I\u00a0use free Wi-Fi in\u00a0caf\u00e9s, hookah bars, and public places. I\u00a0also use a\u00a0VPN for some resources.<\/p>\n Anonymous, Barnaul<\/p>\n For basic needs, it\u2019s enough, but the sense of\u00a0control and pressure never goes away. It\u00a0feels like surveillance. I\u00a0need open access, mostly to\u00a0Telegram, Instagram, and YouTube \u2014 those are my\u00a0work tools.<\/p>\n If\u00a0I\u00a0connect to\u00a0a\u00a0VPN over Wi-Fi and then switch back to\u00a0mobile data in\u00a0the whitelist zone, the VPN doesn\u2019t always disconnect, and then everything loads. But through the whitelist itself, my\u00a0VPN services won\u2019t start.<\/p>\n E., Ulyanovsk region<\/p>\n Our company happily took the opportunity to\u00a0enable the whitelist on\u00a0the tower near our workplace and basically never turn it\u00a0off. What\u2019s available: Gosuslugi, Beeline\u2019s customer portal, Wildberries, Ozon, Yandex Music (I\u00a0don\u2019t use any of\u00a0them, but those definitely work).<\/p>\n I\u00a0think most people in\u00a0the region haven\u2019t even noticed the whitelist. But my\u00a0colleagues and I\u00a0are the \u201clucky\u201d ones. We\u00a0pay the same subscription fee as\u00a0everyone else, only now the content we\u00a0get is\u00a0\u201chigh-quality\u201d and vetted.<\/p>\n In\u00a0our case, to\u00a0reach sites outside the whitelist, you have to\u00a0wander around the grounds with your phone held up\u00a0to\u00a0the sky, hoping to\u00a0catch the neighboring tower, where the whitelist gets disabled once the drone-threat alert is\u00a0lifted. It\u00a0feels like being a\u00a0kid again, when you had to\u00a0stand on\u00a0a\u00a0stool by\u00a0the window to\u00a0catch a\u00a0signal. A\u00a0strange sort of\u00a0nostalgia.<\/p>\n Anonymous, Omsk<\/p>\n There is\u00a0a\u00a0real need for the rest of\u00a0the Internet! Banking apps don\u2019t work, by\u00a0the way \u2014 not even Yandex Pay.<\/p>\n As\u00a0for other sites, there\u2019s no\u00a0way to\u00a0access them. At\u00a0home you can use your Wi-Fi, but otherwise \u2014 welcome to\u00a0the Cheburnet [domestic Internet] era. I\u00a0get the sense the whole country will feel it\u00a0soon. First they restrict mobile Internet, then everything else. I\u00a0can just imagine how much money there is\u00a0to\u00a0be\u00a0made off this whitelist. Want your site visible again? Here are the fees. So\u00a0yeah, just great.<\/p>\n \u2018We\u2019re back in the early 2000s\u2019 Mobile Internet blackouts are now routine in many Russian regions. We asked readers how it\u2019s upending their lives.<\/a>\u2018We\u2019re back in the early 2000s\u2019 Mobile Internet blackouts are now routine in many Russian regions. We asked readers how it\u2019s upending their lives.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This fall, mobile Internet has finally begun to\u00a0return to\u00a0Russia\u2019s regions after months of\u00a0regular shutdowns, allegedly imposed to\u00a0counter the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[174,74,15182,15177,15180,15169,15162,15174,15164,15175,15181,15170,15158,15165,15159,15167,15168,15160,15163,15161,15179,15173,15166,15178,15176,15172,15171],"class_list":["post-165477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-internet","tag-internet","tag-technology","tag-15182","tag-15177","tag-15180","tag-15169","tag-15162","tag-15174","tag-15164","tag-15175","tag-15181","tag-15170","tag-15158","tag-15165","tag-15159","tag-15167","tag-15168","tag-15160","tag-15163","tag-15161","tag-15179","tag-15173","tag-15166","tag-15178","tag-15176","tag-15172","tag-15171"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}