{"id":9060,"date":"2026-04-17T21:22:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/?p=9060"},"modified":"2026-04-17T21:22:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T21:22:57","slug":"my-phone-is-a-brick-russians-scramble-for-information-as-data-blocked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/2026\/04\/17\/my-phone-is-a-brick-russians-scramble-for-information-as-data-blocked\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018My phone is a brick\u2019: Russians scramble for information as data blocked"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Russian citizens are facing a digital crisis as government-mandated data blocks render smartphones practically useless for accessing the global internet. As the Kremlin moves deeper toward the &#8220;sovereign internet&#8221; law, access to international news, social media, and encrypted messaging apps has been almost entirely severed. This information vacuum has led many to describe their devices as &#8220;bricks,&#8221; forcing a desperate scramble for sophisticated VPNs and decentralized communication tools. Analysts suggest these measures are an attempt to exert total control over the domestic narrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Date<\/strong>: March 26, 2026. <strong>Source<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/features\/2026\/3\/26\/my-phone-is-a-brick-russians-scramble-for-information-as-data-blocked\">aljazeera.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russian citizens are facing a digital crisis as government-mandated data blocks render smartphones practically useless for accessing the global internet. As the Kremlin moves deeper toward the &#8220;sovereign internet&#8221; law, access to international news, social media, and encrypted messaging apps has been almost entirely severed. This information vacuum has led many to describe their devices [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":9063,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-unregulated-digitalization-of-political-arena"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9060"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9273,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9060\/revisions\/9273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elearning.uia.no\/observatory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}