Because the invasion of Ukraine enters its third day, Russia has blocked entry to Twitter in an obvious effort to stifle the stream of data, in line with a report from the web monitoring group NetBlocks. Starting Saturday morning, NetBlocks noticed failed or closely throttled connections throughout each main Russian telecom supplier, together with Rostelecom, MTS, Beeline, and MegaFon. Russians are nonetheless in a position to entry Twitter via VPN providers, however direct connections are restricted.

Journalists on the ground in Russia have confirmed the block. A BBC reporter described entry as “severely restricted,” saying “this message received via, however took some time.”

The motivation behind the restrictions is unclear, however comes amid a broader crackdown on social media platforms within the nation. Friday night time, Russia introduced a brand new block on Fb after the platform eliminated the accounts of 4 state-run media organizations, a transfer the federal government described as a violation of “the rights and freedoms of Russian residents.”

“We’re conscious that Twitter is being restricted for some individuals in Russia and are working to maintain our service secure and accessible,” Twitter stated in a tweet. Twitter didn’t instantly reply to The Verge’s request for remark.

Preventing stays heated throughout Ukraine as Russian forces focus their assault on the capital metropolis Kyiv. As of Saturday, the capital remained within the arms of the Ukrainian authorities. Based on the nation’s well being minister, 198 Ukrainians have been killed within the preventing and greater than 1,000 have been wounded.

Russian state media has introduced a heavily sanitized model of the battle, targeted largely on the plight of refugees from the Japanese Donbas province.

Social media platforms have painted a extra chaotic image, with disturbing pictures and movies from the battle circulating broadly. One broadly circulated video reveals a Russian missile striking a residential apartment tower in Kyiv, an obvious violation of worldwide regulation. Different pictures appear to show using cluster munitions, though the proof remains to be unverified.

Web entry in Ukraine itself stays lively and Twitter has not been blocked within the nation itself. Some analysts have raised issues that Russian forces might seize telecom infrastructure and institute an web blackout because the battle intensifies, however to this point outages have been sporadic and localized round Kharkiv.

Replace February twenty sixth 11:58AM ET: Up to date so as to add a tweet from Twitter Assist.