Russia has blocked access to the popular U.S. children’s gaming platform Roblox, accusing it of spreading extremist materials and promoting what it calls “LGBT propaganda,” the country’s communications watchdog Roskomnadzor announced on Wednesday.
The regulator said Roblox was “rife with inappropriate content that can negatively impact the spiritual and moral development of children.” It did not specify which materials led to the decision. Roblox Corp, which operates the platform, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The gaming platform, which reported an average of 151.5 million daily active users in the third quarter of 2025, has previously faced bans in countries such as Iraq and Türkiye over concerns that predators were exploiting it to target children.
According to its website, Roblox says it is “rigorously committed” to keeping users safe through artificial intelligence tools, moderation teams, and cooperation with law enforcement and child safety experts.
Part of Russia’s broader digital crackdown
The ban is the latest step in Russia’s sweeping effort to tighten control over online content and foreign tech platforms. Roskomnadzor has previously restricted or blocked access to major Western services, including Facebook, Instagram, and BBC News, accusing them of violating domestic laws on “extremism” and “non-traditional sexual relations.”
Last year, the language-learning app Duolingo removed all references to what Russia terms “non-traditional sexual relations” after the watchdog issued warnings over LGBT content.
In 2023, Russia went further by designating what it called the “international LGBT movement” as an extremist organisation, allowing authorities to open criminal cases against LGBT people and their supporters.
Tech platforms under growing pressure
Roskomnadzor has also targeted messaging apps. In August 2025, it began limiting certain calls on WhatsApp and Telegram, accusing the foreign-owned platforms of refusing to cooperate with Russian law enforcement in cases related to fraud and terrorism. The watchdog last week threatened to block WhatsApp completely if the company continued to resist demands for data access.
Critics say such measures are part of the Kremlin’s campaign to suppress independent information and foreign influence under the pretext of protecting national security and public morality.
A new study in mice suggests the brain’s protective barrier does more than block harmful substances. It also delivers essential proteins from...
Melting glaciers, recurring droughts and dust storms are putting growing pressure on Central Asia’s water resources, agriculture and public h...
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says 3.7 million children in Afghanistan are suffering from acute malnutrition, as worsening drou...
European leaders gathered in Dublin on Thursday, 12 November, for the ninth European Political Community (EPC) summit, with security, defence and energy high on the agenda. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held talks focused on peace, trade and regional cooperation.
Iran will not let a single particle of its enriched nuclear material leave the country, and any new U.S. attack would be met with strikes on distant American bases, Iranian security chief Mohsen Rezaei has said.
Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang is stepping down amid reports linking him to a woman suspected by U.S. authorities of spying for China, throwing the future of the $4 trillion chipmaker into uncertainty.
Four million workers across Spain joined a general strike on Wednesday over the country’s deepening housing crisis, unions said, bringing disruption to factories, ports, shops and public transport just weeks before a snap general election.
Kazakhstan’s security service has arrested Nurlan Zhakupov, CEO of Samruk-Kazyna, the country’s sovereign wealth fund, on suspicion of corruption. Yelzhas Otynshiyev, Chairman of KTZ, Kazakhstan’s national railway firm has also been detained.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says 3.7 million children in Afghanistan are suffering from acute malnutrition, as worsening drought and funding shortages threaten to deepen the crisis amid the COP31 climate summit in Türkiye.
A consortium of Türkiye’s Limak and Qatar’s HBK Contracting has won an international tender to build and operate a new airport terminal in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, under a 23-year public-private partnership, with the project potentially costing up to $300 million.
Spain’s parliament has approved a government package aimed at easing the country’s housing crisis, a day after workers staged the first general strike in 14 years over soaring housing costs.
Here's your AnewZ Technology Daily Brief for the 13th of November. This week, a Microsoft outage hit Australian agencies, Google restricted mapping data in South Korea, a lawsuit targeted advanced AI development, and Nvidia faced a leadership crisis after Jensen Huang's resignation.
Microsoft struggled to restore its services on Friday after a major outage disrupted Outlook, Teams and Copilot across the United States and Asia-Pacific region.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment