By James Purtill technology reporter for ABC
On 24 February in Moscow, when social media was full of the news that Russia had broken its promise and invaded Ukraine overnight, Oleg Shakirov noticed that Facebook wasn't loading properly.
Throttling internet speeds has proved an effective way of preventing civilians reporting on what was happening in their region, a professor says. Photo: AFP
The text appeared fine but there were just grey squares where the images and videos should have been.
"First they started slowing down Facebook," the internet security expert said.
"Then after a week they blocked it completely."
Until recently, Russia's internet looked, at least on the surface, something like Australia's: Russians posted videos on Instagram and TikTok, paid for Netflix and Spotify with PayPal, advertised their business on Facebook, sold goods on Etsy, and used Microsoft Office at work.
Now, all of these are unavailable as a result of the war, with foreign companies withdrawing services and the state looking to increase its control over how Russians use the internet.
Apple products on sale in a store in Moscow until the tech giant halted all sales in the country as a result of the war on Ukraine. Photo: AFP
A digital iron curtain is falling on Russia - the equivalent of the political boundary dividing Europe during the Cold War.
Here's what happens when the internet gets dismantled.
The government throttles internet speeds
Though many first noticed the changes on 24 February, in fact the Russian government began actively slowing the country's internet the night before the invasion of Ukraine.
This is the conclusion of Melbourne's Monash IP Observatory, which remotely monitors the activity and quality of the internet, and can target any location around the world at any given time.
On 23 February, the night before the invasion, Russia's internet saw a sharp spike in latency, or the amount of time it takes for a data packet to travel from one designated point to another.
The spike points to congestion, which suggests the Russian state was either censoring online content or deliberately slowing the internet to restrict access to news media, says Simon Angus, a Monash University data scientist and director of the observatory.
"This isn't merely that people suddenly got interested in an invasion. It hadn't occurred yet," Dr Angus said.
"These are actions taken by the Russian government knowing that an invasion the next morning would occur."
Russia had done this before, said Paul Raschky, another member of the Monash IP Observatory.
With TV, radio and newspapers now "more or less state-controlled", throttling internet speeds has proved an effective way of preventing civilians reporting on what was happening in their region, Professor Raschky said.
"The internet is the one source left where you can get diverse opinion."
Social media and news sites blocked
In the first week of the invasion, Russia's war went badly, with high losses, a failure to meet stated objectives, and an online barrage of videos showing destroyed Russian tanks, trucks and aircraft.
At the same time, Ukraine assembled a large global army of volunteer hackers that took the fight to the aggressor.
This "IT army" temporarily disabled many Russian government websites in the first week, Shakirov said.
"They also targeted Russian banks, Russian media companies, and there is now a disruption of one major Russian ecommerce website."
Russians do not have many opportunities to find out how the war is going with social media sites blocked and most news outlets closed. Photo: AFP
In response to the military setbacks and cyber attacks, the Russian government tightened the screws.
By the end of the first week, it had blocked Facebook and Twitter as well as foreign news services including BBC Russia, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle and Radio Free Europe.
Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a law punishing "fake news", especially about the invasion, with up to 15 years in prison.
Next, the government warned that it would block Instagram, which is far more widely used in Russia than Facebook.
Russian Instagram was flooded with farewells as users posted links to their profiles on other platforms, such as Telegram.
On Monday, Instagram will be blocked in Russia. This decision will cut 80 million in Russia off from one another, and from the rest of the world as ~80% of people in Russia follow an Instagram account outside their country. This is wrong.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) March 11, 2022
'We can't sell anything'
By platform and by website, the internet was dismantled, Shakirov said.
This unprecedented change appeared to Russians as a series of error messages, stalled loading screens and email updates.
Spotify emailed Shakirov to say it had cancelled his premium service, since the payment systems it used were withdrawing from Russia.
Microsoft said it was suspending new sales to Russians, which could apply to Russians renewing their subscriptions.
"I know of one organisation that completely switched from Office365 to the Russian domestic alternative," Shakirov said.
"Regular people who are young and active users of internet, they feel the effects .... in one way or another."
Dmitry Kornouhov sold wooden paddleboards to Europeans on Etsy until Paypal withdrew from Russia on 6 March.
"We can't sell anything," he said.
"I'm just sitting at my laptop and looking for solutions."
Many relying on the internet have tried to emigrate, said Igor Baikov, a young tech company founder in Moscow.
"Some flee to neighbouring countries which were cheap a couple weeks ago, now there are lines to open bank accounts and the Airbnbs have almost the same prices as Moscow."
Businesses have especially struggled with the loss of Instagram, he said.
"These businesses bought ads and used Instagram to get clients, now it's all gone."
- ABC
