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Censorship Monitor · Russia Last test

Is Facebook banned in Russia?

Yes. Russia has blocked Facebook since 4 March 2022, and a Moscow court banned it as “extremist” on 21 March 2022.

Today’s test · www.facebook.com

Blocked

www.facebook.com fails to open on Rostelecom and MTS, twice, while it opens from other countries.

Last confirmed
Seen in our tests since
29 Sep 2026 (may be older)
How it fails
The secure connection stalls
Tested on
Rostelecom and MTS
Test Facebook yourself › Everything we test in Russia

The official status

Facebook in Russia

Roskomnadzor blocked Facebook on 4 March 2022, accusing it of restricting Russian state media accounts. On 21 March 2022 a Moscow court banned Meta’s Facebook and Instagram for “extremist activity”, and the authorities said individual users wouldn’t be punished.

Since February 2026 facebook.com has also been missing from Russia’s national DNS, the state-run name lookup system internet providers have to use, so the address no longer resolves.

A law adopted in July 2025 fines people who deliberately search for officially listed “extremist materials”; the digital development minister said ordinary users wouldn’t suffer from it.

What our daily test shows

Our test machines in Russia can’t even look up facebook.com’s address: “the name doesn’t resolve” is what removal from the national DNS looks like.

Get past a block

How to use Facebook in Russia

A VPN connects you through a server in another country, so a block on Facebook in Russia no longer applies. Where VPNs themselves are blocked, you need one that can disguise its traffic, and you should set it up before you travel.

Using a VPN isn’t illegal in Russia, but VPN providers that won’t cooperate with the government are blocked.

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Around the world

Where else is Facebook blocked?

Facebook is also blocked in 2 other countries we test.

It opens in 21 of the 23 other countries with a current result.

Facebook in every country we test ›

Russia

What else is blocked in Russia?

31 of the other 66 sites and apps we test are blocked in Russia.

All 67 results for Russia ›

History

Changes for Facebook in Russia

No confirmed changes since monitoring began on 29 Sep 2026. When a block appears or lifts, and a re-check on several machines agrees, it shows up here.

Method

How we test

  • Every day, test machines on Rostelecom and MTS home connections open www.facebook.com.
  • A failure counts only when it happens twice on the same network, while the site opens from other countries.
  • A change is published only after re-checks a few hours later and again the next day, on several machines per provider, confirm it. It’s dated from the first sighting.
  • Test machines caught getting around blocks, through a VPN or a filter-dodging tool, are set aside.
  • We test the website over home broadband. The app, calls and mobile networks can behave differently.

Full method ›

Questions

Facebook in Russia: questions

Does Facebook Work in Russia?

No. Russia has blocked Facebook since 4 March 2022, and a Moscow court banned it as “extremist” on 21 March 2022.

Is It Illegal to Use Facebook in Russia?

Using it isn’t punished in itself. The authorities said in 2022 they didn’t intend to punish individual users, and in July 2025 the digital development minister said ordinary users wouldn’t suffer from a new law that fines deliberate searches for officially listed “extremist materials”.

Why Did Russia Ban Facebook?

Roskomnadzor said Facebook had restricted Russian state media accounts. Weeks later a Moscow court banned Meta’s Facebook and Instagram as “extremist”.

Free to use

Cite this result

Quote or republish today’s result with a link to this page: the monitor’s data is under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0).

Source: vpnAlert Censorship Monitor, https://vpnalert.com/tools/censorship-monitor/russia/facebook/

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