Por Guy Faulconbridge
MOSCOW, Dec 14 (Reuters) – Dozens of people protested in the Siberian city of Tomsk on Sunday against Russia’s ban on U.S. gaming platform Roblox, a rare display of public dissent as popular anger over the ban gains momentum.
In wartime Russia, censorship is widespread: Moscow blocks or restricts social media platforms such as Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and YouTube, while spreading its own narrative through a network of social media and Russian media.
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Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communications regulatory agency, said on December 3 that it blocked Roblox because it was “filled with inappropriate content that could negatively impact children’s spiritual and moral development.”
In Tomsk, 2,900 km east of Moscow, dozens of people braved the snow to display hand-drawn signs reading ‘Hands off Roblox’ and ‘Roblox is a victim of the digital Iron Curtain’ in Vladimir Vysotsky Park, according to photographs provided by a protest organizer.
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‘Bans and lockdowns are all you can do,’ read one poster. The photographs showed about 25 people standing in a circle in the snow, holding signs.
In Russia, the Roblox ban has sparked a debate about censorship, children’s safety in technology, and even the effectiveness of censorship in a digitalized world, where children can bypass many bans with just a few clicks.
Many Russians simply get around the bans by using VPNs (Virtual Private Networks), although some young Russians question the logic of a ban if it can be circumvented so easily, while others question why there are so few Russian alternatives to the apps the state has banned.
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Some Russian parents and teachers said they were concerned that Roblox allowed children to access sexual content and communicate with adults.
Roblox, based in San Mateo, California, has been banned in several countries, including Iraq and Turkey, due to concerns about predators exploiting the platform to abuse children.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. When the Russian ban was implemented, Roblox claimed to have “a deep commitment to security” and provide “stringent built-in protections to help keep users safe.”
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Russian officials say they need censorship to defend themselves against a sophisticated ‘information war’ unleashed by Western powers and what they see as a decadent Western culture that undermines ‘traditional’ Russian values.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge)
