Russia appears to block social media platform Bluesky amid wider internet restrictions

Russia’s internet regulator reportedly blocked access to the social media platform Bluesky, the latest move in a widening crackdown on foreign online services.

Russian digital rights organization RKS Global told Recorded Future News that Bluesky had been added to the registry of banned websites maintained by Russia’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor, although the agency has not yet provided a public explanation.

Roskomnadzor oversees internet censorship and content regulation in Russia and has tightened control over online platforms since the start of the war in Ukraine. Authorities have increasingly restricted access to foreign social media and messaging services, often citing violations of Russian law or concerns about fraud and cybercrime.

Earlier this year, the regulator moved against services including Telegram and WhatsApp, arguing that the platforms had failed to comply with local legislation.

Bluesky itself has only a limited user base in Russia, mostly among people looking for alternatives after X — formerly Twitter — was blocked and other platforms became harder to access, said Aleksey Kozlyuk, an expert at RKS Global.

“The successive blocking of Discord, Signal, Viber, WhatsApp and now Telegram has pushed users toward alternative services that are still accessible — including Bluesky — and Roskomnadzor appears to have noticed this,” Kozlyuk told Recorded Future News.

Like other foreign platforms, Bluesky remains accessible in Russia through virtual private networks (VPNs), whose use the Kremlin has increasingly tried to restrict.

The decentralized social network has grown rapidly since 2024, following a wave of departures from X after the re-election of U.S. President Donald Trump. Bluesky has about 43.7 million users — far fewer than Elon Musk-owned X or Meta’s Threads, which each have several hundred million monthly active users.

The move comes as Russian authorities also continue to impose intermittent mobile internet shutdowns across parts of the country, which officials say are linked to security concerns.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described the ongoing internet disruptions as a temporary measure tied to security considerations.

“It’s clear that internet restrictions are causing inconvenience for many citizens, but that’s how it is now,” Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.