Experts report Google Docs blockage in Russia

On the evening of 15 September, subscribers of Russian operators began experiencing problems accessing Google Docs. Experts said the service had started to be blocked.

The GlobalCheck project recorded issues affecting subscribers of MTS, MegaFon and Rostelecom.

Later, specialists from the RosKomSvoboda organisation said that MTS and MegaFon were blocking Google Docs across Russia.

In addition to Google Docs, experts reported problems with access to the telegra.ph publishing service.

The blocks are presumably linked to the publication of Smart Voting lists — earlier on 15 September they began circulating via Google Docs and telegra.ph.

By Thursday morning, 16 September, the services were operating normally again.

RosKomSvoboda’s technical director, Stanislav Shakirov, told ForkLog that the blocking employed threat-countermeasures (ТСПУ):

“These were some tests — what would happen if you did this, and whether it is possible to block in this way.”

Last week, Roskomnadzor tested the possibility mass blocking of public DNS services Google and Cloudflare on major providers.

Previously, the agency blocked six VPN services.

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