Amid its war on Ukraine, Russia continues to block a number of external religious websites, social media accounts and apps from several countries, preventing believers of various faiths from accessing information and engaging in dialogue, according to a human rights watch group.
Forum 18—a news service that partners with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee in defending freedom of religion, thought and conscience—posted an updated list of affected sites 4 October.
“I think it illustrates the Russian authorities’ … obsessions, if you like, in blocking what they call extremist content,” Felix Corley, Forum 18 editor and researcher, told OSV News, noting that the bans are also operative in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
Among the outlets that can no longer be accessed in Russia is the Belarusian website Katolik.Life, a private, voluntary initiative by an unnamed individual depicting current and historical Catholic life in that nation, and Religious Information Service of Ukraine, which was founded by the Institute of Religion and Society of the Ukrainian Catholic University.
Other Christian and Muslim sites, as well as news and nongovernmental organisations covering religious freedom, have been banned by Russia, which also forbids access to the sites in occupied areas of Ukraine.
Corley said the bans hamper “people’s possibilities to find out about their faith and other people’s faith, and to have a free exchange of ideas in the area of religion.”