media
Online offers from DW and BBC blocked in Russia
In addition to the Internet offer of Deutsche Welle, the British BBC is currently not available in Russia. Photo: Oliver Berg/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
In the midst of the attack on Ukraine, an information war is also raging: the Internet news from Deutsche Welle and the BBC can no longer be reached in Russia.
The online services of Deutsche Welle (DW) and other Western media are no longer available in Russia.
As the German foreign broadcaster told the dpa on Friday, citing its cybersecurity experts, “dw.com” had been blocked in all broadcast languages in Russia since the night.
DW director Peter Limbourg addressed a letter to Russian users, which was also to be distributed on social networks. Regarding the blocking, he said: “I very much regret this and ask you, if possible, to use Internet blockade bypass means to reach our programs.” Under the letter, which could be read on the DW website, the broadcaster added articles about technological options for bypassing a ban.
Not only Deutsche Welle was affected by the blockade. As the BBC reported, access to its own news website, as well as several other Western media outlets, Facebook and the Google Playstore was also partially or fully restricted. The BBC recently reported a sharp increase in traffic to the BBC website in Russia.
According to the Interfax news agency, the Russian media supervisory authority Roskomnadzor justified the step with an alleged spread of false news about “the special military operation” in Ukraine. This is how the war against the neighboring country is called in Russia. The attack has been going on for more than a week.