Russia Blocks Roblox, Apple's FaceTime (www.cbc.ca) 51
Russia has blocked Apple's FaceTime and the gaming platform Roblox as part of a broader crackdown on foreign tech platforms. CBC News reports: Both restrictions are part of an accelerating clampdown on foreign tech platforms: In the case of FaceTime, Russian authorities allege it is being used for criminal activity, while Roblox was accused of distributing extremist materials and "LGBT propaganda." The move follows restrictions against Google's YouTube, Meta's WhatsApp and the Telegram messaging service.
Critics say the curbs amount to censorship and a tightening of state control over private communications. Russia says they are legitimate law enforcement measures. Russian authorities have this year launched a state-backed rival app called Max, which critics say could be used for surveillance -- allegations that state media have dismissed as false.
Justifying its decision, the communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said in an emailed statement: "According to law enforcement agencies, FaceTime is being used to organize and carry out terrorist attacks in the country, recruit perpetrators, and commit fraud and other crimes against Russian citizens." The watchdog did not cite evidence in support of the allegations.
Critics say the curbs amount to censorship and a tightening of state control over private communications. Russia says they are legitimate law enforcement measures. Russian authorities have this year launched a state-backed rival app called Max, which critics say could be used for surveillance -- allegations that state media have dismissed as false.
Justifying its decision, the communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, said in an emailed statement: "According to law enforcement agencies, FaceTime is being used to organize and carry out terrorist attacks in the country, recruit perpetrators, and commit fraud and other crimes against Russian citizens." The watchdog did not cite evidence in support of the allegations.
That's what Russia CLAIMS... however (Score:4, Funny)
Here's the REAL reason Russia is banning Roblox [craiyon.com].
Super unrealistic (Score:3)
Re: That's what Russia CLAIMS... however (Score:3)
Probably. This is why encrypted messaging is banned:
https://mashable.com/article/r... [mashable.com]
Re: That's what Russia CLAIMS... however (Score:3)
Well, Putler, which LLM do you suppose wrote that back in 2017?
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russia has been cracking down on what its people can see for a very long time. It's getting worse because the war is getting worse. Can't have all the people complaining that they aren't getting paid and their relatives keep getting slaughtered in Ukraine.
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There was absolutely nothing in that article about Roblox usage. It talked about browsing websites.
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"Her social media included TikTok’s featuring streams from the popular game Roblox, say law enforcement."
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So, TikTok, not Roblox! C’mon.
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or maybe this: https://www.almendron.com/trib... [almendron.com]
(original nyt article: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/0... [nytimes.com] (paywalled))
Can we please cut Russia off the entire Internet? (Score:3)
Re:Can we please cut Russia off the entire Interne (Score:4, Informative)
If the recent change to Twitter which put location on user profiles is anything to go by, most of the troll farms seem to be in India and Pakistan.
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Just cut them off for one day. I bet there would be a visible downtick in social media posts if the troll farms went away for just one day.
Social media posts? Screw that... how about ransomware attacks?
Unfortunately, no, we can't. Because "we" can't agree on simple stuff like... vaccines that have billions of doses injected, or decades of clinical results published are good. All it takes is one of Russia's peering links to a friendly nation to stay live.
As an aside, what even is "LGBT propaganda"? Is there somewhere that posts are going up saying things like "try being gay... being a target for homophobes while having a dating pool one
Re:Can we please cut Russia off the entire Interne (Score:4, Insightful)
As an aside, what even is "LGBT propaganda"?
Best summed up by an advert on the side of a bus. It was Stonewall, I think.
Some people are gay. Get over it.
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As an aside, what even is "LGBT propaganda"?
That'd be anything expressing a post-1973 viewpoint of homosexuality. Basically, perpetuating the idea that someone can be themselves and not be made to feel like shit about it.
So much worrying about what's going on in someone else's pants.
If you venture into the cesspit that was formerly Twitter, it's overflowing with conservatives complaining about things that should be none of their concern: People wearing the wrong kind of clothing on a plane, people spending their SNAP benefits on candy instead of on "healthy" foods such as fruit juice (which often contains just
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In a repressive society where any deviance is suppressed, propaganda is any attitude that paints the deviant behaviour as acceptable. In this context, LGBT propaganda could be a picture of same-sex adults holdings hands looking like a normal thing to do. Or written posts that acknowledge the existence of sexual minorities in Russia.
Because it's not only that Russia doesn't want sexual minorities to have a expression in the public, reserving sexual behaviours to the private space; Russia thinks gays are so b
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Because it's not only that Russia doesn't want sexual minorities to have a expression in the public, reserving sexual behaviours to the private space; Russia thinks gays are so bad (and Russia so great) that there can't possibly be gays in Russia, other than through the corruption of the West and their propaganda.
It wasn't Russia, but I remember a perfect example of this kind of attitude with regards to some lions that were caught on camera engaged in activity that was interpreted as homosexual (it may have been, but it may have more along the lines of a dominance display, sexual or otherwise): "These animals need counselling, because probably they have been influenced by gays who have gone to the national parks and behaved badly," was the quote from Ezekiel Mutua, the head of the Kenya Film Classification Board. He
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Russia loves cutting cables, we should give them more of what they love... at home.
I'm sure they'd find a way to export their porn via other means, so nothing of value would be lost.
Actually, I'd miss ÐYоÐÐÐон-98 but I could live with it.
Yes, I know that isn't readable. I just don't care any more. Besides, there's no way to make it readable here.
The Roblox FUD in the USA has to stop (Score:4, Insightful)
Roblox is really fucking popular, like nothing I've seen before. There are a lot of diverse games and a few are even fun. My kids and all their friends absolutely love it. It generally has decent AI moderation and it's very easy to report anything bad happening on it. I've played on it nearly every night with my kids for the last month. I haven't seen anything beyond the same routine assholery you see in all multi-player games....it's just Halo and Fortnight never had such a broad marketshare, so no one went after them. Also, it has attracted a record amount of young girls, whereas past gaming hits were more male dominated.
All that said, I am experiencing Deja Vu all over again...the same shitheads that said Metal would make us Satanic and that violent video games, like Mortal Kombat, will lead to an increase in violence...and that GTA will turn is all into criminals....they're going after Roblox. Russia has their own shitty agenda and I don't give a fuck about that failed state. I am more concerned about the Republicans back home who look to Putin for inspiration and are trying this bullshit at home. Their elderly voter base hasn't seen it and will believe any stupid shit Fox News says about it being a groomer platform...when if you actually play it, it's just a gaming platform and focused on play.
So yeah...when you and Putin are allies in a fight against everyone else, you really should question your decisions in life.
Re:The Roblox FUD in the USA has to stop (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course, parental oversight can pretty easily eliminate that threat, but that doesn't really happen.
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I figure they ignore the pedo problem because the company also preys on kids, just in different ways.
parental oversight can pretty easily eliminate that threat
Unlikely. Kids can access that cesspit in countless ways from countless places. It's not like they can only access Roblox from the family PC in the living room... Also, not all kids have families or guardians that are interested or capable of effectively monitoring their internet use. Hell, some kids have families that explicitly traffic their children, a horror that is a lot more common than you'd expec
You have pedophilia on the brain to think that (Score:1)
Hell, some kids have families that explicitly traffic their children, a horror that is a lot more common than you'd expect.
It really isn't FFS. Where do you live that you think this? It's not common at all...that families pimp out their children/nieces/nephews to have sex for money? You watch too much TV. Spend time in the real world and you'll see nearly every grade school child playing Roblox. It has no more predators than your local school, library, or church. It's not a realistic risk.
There just aren't that many predators out there. Do they exist? Yes. Is your kid going to find one playing "Steal a brainrot"? N
Re: You have pedophilia on the brain to think that (Score:2)
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It really isn't FFS.
Get a fucking clue [iom.int]
Where do you live that you think this?
Reality.
It's not common at all...
Only in your imagination.
that families pimp out their children/nieces/nephews to have sex for money?
Close to half of all child trafficking involves members of the child's family.
Re:The Roblox FUD in the USA has to stop (Score:4, Insightful)
Just to play devil's advocate, they probably want kids to have normal childhoods without excessive amounts of screen time, and you know some parents absolutely do just plop an iPad in front of their kids as a digital babysitter.
Thing is, if you're a politician and straight up just say that some parents are shitty parents, that's not going to go over well. So instead, yeah, they spin it as protecting kids from some evil online predators/groomers/etc., when the real reason is, again, that they want kids to just go outside and touch some grass. I'm not sure how I feel about that from a parental rights perspective, but as someone who had a so-called analog childhood, I can see the appeal of wanting to hold on to that part of the past.
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The real problem is this absurd implicit assumption that every childless moron and politician makes that every kid has a 1950s-style middle class nuclear family with educated and involved parents.
"Parents should be the ones who..." Well, lots of kids don't have parents. Lots of kids just have one. Lots of kids have parents who don't have the means (money, intelligence, education, support, etc) to raise them in your mythical ideal way. Lots of kids have parents who abuse them, traffic them, ignore them...
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The real problem is this absurd implicit assumption that every childless moron and politician makes that every kid has a 1950s-style middle class nuclear family with educated and involved parents.
Help me out here, are you saying it's okay to plop an iPad in front of your kid and let it raise them if you're a single parent and that's just the best you can do? Because it sure sounds that way.
I'm normally on the side of "raise your kids however you damn well please". It's just that we've recently started to see some actual evidence though that too much screen time at too young an age may be detrimental to a child's well being, and it's really not the worst thing in the world if politicians are lookin
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Wow, you have a lot of trouble with basic reading comprehension!
Before you reply to another one of my posts, find an adult to help you understand it.
They send them to get killed in Ukraine (Score:2)
Just to play devil's advocate, they probably want kids to have normal childhoods without excessive amounts of screen time, and you know some parents absolutely do just plop an iPad in front of their kids as a digital babysitter.
I think you forgot you're talking about Russia, a country with a long history of indifference to slaughtering their own civilians in mass numbers. They're the worst civilization I know of in regards to human life. The more you learn about Russia and the USA, you appreciate how much better we are than them. We care about our soldiers and hold hearings when they die. We take good care of them. Russia has no problem sending thousands to their deaths. Americans HATE dead soldiers. When an American soldi
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I think you forgot you're talking about Russia
This you?
I know Russia is full of shit, but we have Ken Paxton trying to do the same here.
That's what I was specifically responding to; why our right-wing politicians are also going after Roblox. As for Russia, I've never visited, it's one of those places I have no desire to every visit because I value my freedom, and if they're banning Roblox it probably just is because fascist shitholes are gonna fascist shithole.
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For all the potential good, it comes with a lot of real harms.
Roblox is not a net good. Far from it. I'd go as far as to call it actively harmful. The company exploits its developers, mostly children, quite badly. A not insignificant portion of their users also exploit children, in the worst ways you can image. Roblox is a fractal of evil.
So you've clearly never spent time on it? (Score:2)
For all the potential good, it comes with a lot of real harms.
Roblox is not a net good. Far from it. I'd go as far as to call it actively harmful. The company exploits its developers, mostly children, quite badly. A not insignificant portion of their users also exploit children, in the worst ways you can image. Roblox is a fractal of evil.
Kewl, you watched that news report about children who volunteer to make games and often don't get paid...the same way every social media company is, especially YouTube. I am sure the economic facet could use improvement. However, no one asks kids to make games. They volunteer to with the hopes of making money or doing something they love...like everyone on YouTube, bandcamp, etc. I am sure things would be better if they changed thresholds and percentages, but I think it's overstating it to call it a pla
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You've more than demonstrated your laughable ignorance up thread.
You're clearly not qualified for this discussion. Take your ignorant nonsense back to whatever right-wing echo chamber you came from.
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I'm going to have to say that this is one of the occasions where Somervillain is making sense and is not stuck on some right-wing echo chamber notion. If there were, for example, a binary choice between kinds using Roblox and, for example, 4chan, I know which one I would choose. Roblox or Andrew Tate? Etc., etc. This is not to say that the corporation behind it is not a scummy exploitative monster. That's pretty much a given these days. The odds of children falling prey to some sort of child sex predator th
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Is it FUD to link to statements made by the Roblox ceo, David Baszucki?
Because years ago he came out saying his vision is for Roblox to become a dating site, and while searching google to copy/paste his name just now, he's still making such statements up to a couple months ago this year.
Go do a web search for: "Roblox ceo David Baszucki dating site"
It's all over every news site out there, you can safely ignore fox news and all the other sites you call "fake news", and still have thousands of hits left.
Let's get them to block SMS (Score:2)
Apparently if we just mass text Russians "LGBT propaganda", they'll block the service.
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ha ha ha, flamebait? ) existance of ruzzia is a flamebait. Existance of ruzzians is a flamebait, a troll actually.
https://youtu.be/Jq2RTlhvqbc?s... [youtu.be]
The actual question is... (Score:2)
Why are any American companies doing any business or providing any services in Russia to begin with? Dictators aren't toppled when everyone is too busy scrolling Instagram.