Social media companies and tech giants have been limiting and even outright prohibiting their services in Russia in order to condemn the country’s invasion of Ukraine. This has had major consequences for Russia’s economy and its citizens.

So far, a long list of companies has suspended operations in Russia. Amazon Web Services, Amazon’s cloud division, has halted new sign-ups in Russia, and Apple has stopped selling its products and has limited access to digital services such as Apple Pay. Intel, IBM and Microsoft have suspended all sales of their products and services in Russia. Netflix has suspended its streaming service, adding on to its previous refusal to air Russian state media channels. Spotify and Twitter have also made moves to restrict access to Russian state media content. Google-owned YouTube has blocked Russian state media in Ukraine and will not allow Russian state media outlets to monetize ads on the platform.

Financial companies have also been restricting access to their services in Russia. Credit card companies Mastercard, Visa and American Express have suspended all operations in the country, meaning that Russian citizens will no longer be able to make purchases or transactions in the country. Cards issued in the country will also not work outside of Russia. Wall Street banks JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs have announced plans to suspend operations in the country. PayPal is also suspending services.

Notably, Meta-owned Facebook has been absent so far from the conversation. This month, Meta announced that Facebook would block access to Russian news outlets RT and Sputnik across the European Union (EU). Russia responded by blocking access to Facebook within its borders, and officials accused the social media company of discrimination against Russian media.

While these moves will not drastically affect the companies, it has huge implications for Russian citizens to access reliable information and freely express themselves online. A law passed earlier this month made it a federal crime to spread fake information about the conflict in Ukraine, sentencing guilty parties to up to 15 years in prison.

More recently, two of the largest global internet service providers Lumen Technologies and Cogent Communications announced that they will block Russian customers from their networks due to fears of cyberattacks from the Russian government.  

All of this has created the perfect storm for Russian president Vladimir Putin to erect a digital Iron Curtain. However, there are concerns about Russia’s internet surviving without the intervention and influence of Western tech services. Russia heavily relies on the outside internet and Western tech companies, and completely cutting off access could trigger major backlash from the public. Even though Russia has its own alternative tech platforms, they have been facing collateral damage from economic sanctions and the continuing conflict in Ukraine.

Russian citizens have already been figuring out ways to access the outside internet along with outside information despite the government’s censorship efforts. Many have been downloading virtual private networks (VPNs), which allow users to have a more secure internet connection. VPNs allow users to hide their internet protocol (IP) address and protect their online identity and data, and the users can access servers all around the world, meaning that they can access information only available in certain countries. Usually, users utilize this capability by watching Netflix shows not available in their home country, but Russian citizens can use VPNs to access information not available in Russia.

Overall, only time will tell if Russia will completely isolate its citizens from the outside internet and censor anything not supported by the state media.