{"id":161476,"date":"2025-10-24T22:56:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T19:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/161476\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:40:57","slug":"belarus-blocks-access-to-russian-social-network-vkontakte","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/161476\/","title":{"rendered":"Belarus blocks access to Russian social network VKontakte"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>October 24, <em>Pozirk.<\/em><\/strong> Belarus blocked access to the Russian social network VKontakte (VK) on Friday at Committee for State Security request, according to the telecom watchdog BelGIE (Bie\u0142DIE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Officials added the social network\u2019s details to the list of restricted domain names without indicating the reason or duration for the blocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year, researchers from the National Academy of Sciences\u2019 Institute of Sociology found that 22.2 percent of respondents in Belarus stated using VK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The social network has often blocked \u201cextremist\u201d pages at Minsk&#8217;s request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2023, VK silenced the <em>Zerkalo <\/em>news website, the Viasna Human Rights Center, the <em>Mediazona<\/em> news website, <em>Belsat TV<\/em> and other independent voices in its system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On October 21 and 22, the Militant Black Metal Shop group and the Doloy Lukashenko! (Down with \u0141uka\u0161enka!) community on VK were recognized as \u201cextremist content\u201d by Belarusian court decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"insert-block\">\n\n    <div class=\"insert-block__img\">\n        <img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/spisok_unsplash_ron_dyar_1128x752-300x200.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/spisok_unsplash_ron_dyar_1128x752-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/spisok_unsplash_ron_dyar_1128x752-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/spisok_unsplash_ron_dyar_1128x752-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/spisok_unsplash_ron_dyar_1128x752.jpg 1128w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>                        <label class=\"insert-block__tag--mobile\"> \u041f\u043e\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0438\u043a\u0430<\/label>\n\n                <\/div>\n    <div class=\"insert-block__text\">\n                    <label class=\"insert-block__tag\">\u041f\u043e\u043b\u0438\u0442\u0438\u043a\u0430<\/label>\n                <h3 class=\"insert-block__title\">Censorship list undergoes massive expansion<\/h3>\n        <div class=\"insert-block__descr\">September 30, Pozirk. The Belarusian information ministry has expanded the list of \u201cextremist content\u201d by 29 pages. Between September 15 and 30, the number of the list\u2019s pages rose from 1,810 to 1,839. Officials added 70 sections grouping hundreds of &#8230;<\/div>\n        <a class=\"insert-block__btn-block\" href=\"\/en\/news\/157894\">\n            <button class=\"btn\">\n                <div class='btn__text'>Read the article<\/div>\n            <\/button>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>October 24, Pozirk. Belarus blocked access to the Russian social network VKontakte (VK) on Friday at Committee for State Security request, according to the telecom watchdog BelGIE (Bie\u0142DIE). Officials added the social network\u2019s details to the list of restricted domain names without indicating the reason or duration for the blocking. Last year, researchers from the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":161459,"template":"","rubric":[16],"class_list":["post-161476","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","rubric-politics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Belarus blocks access to Russian social network VKontakte | Pozirk<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 24, Pozirk. Belarus blocked access to the Russian social network VKontakte (VK) on Friday at Committee for State Security request, according to\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/161476\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Belarus blocks access to Russian social network VKontakte | Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"October 24, Pozirk. Belarus blocked access to the Russian social network VKontakte (VK) on Friday at Committee for State Security request, according to\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/161476\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Pozirk\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pozirkonline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/vk-blok-20251024-screen-POZ.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"876\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"473\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Pozirk_online\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"NewsArticle\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/161476\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/161476\/\"},\"headline\":\"Belarus blocks access to Russian social network VKontakte\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-24T19:56:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/161476\/\"},\"wordCount\":147,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/161476\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/vk-blok-20251024-screen-POZ.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/161476\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/161476\/\",\"name\":\"Belarus blocks access to Russian social network VKontakte | Pozirk\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/161476\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/161476\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/vk-blok-20251024-screen-POZ.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-24T19:56:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-24T20:40:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"October 24, Pozirk. 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