The German secure email provider Tutanota has revealed that it has now been blocked in Russia just one week after AT&T blocked mobile users from accessing the company's services in the US.
Russia's decision to block the company's services appears to be part of the country's domestic policy aimed at preventing foreign-owned services which it cannot control or influence from operating within its borders.
In a blog post on the company's site, Tutanota co-founder Matthias Pfau explained that blocking its services in Russia is a form of censorship, saying:
- Russia blocks ProtonMail
- How to make your email more secure
- Russia just disconnected itself from the Internet
“We condemn the blocking of Tutanota. It is a form of censorship of Russian citizens who are now deprived of yet another secure communication channel online. At Tutanota we fight for our users’ right to privacy online, also, and particularly, in authoritarian countries such as Russia and Egypt.”
Bypassing Russia's block
Tutanota users in Russia should still be able to access the company's services by using a VPN according to the company's blog post.
The latest block on Tutanota's services comes shortly after the company revealed that AT&T was preventing mobile users from accessing the secure email service. However, in an email to The Register, a spokesperson from the telecom explained that users were unable to access Tutanota's services on its network as the result of a bug and not from blocking on its end, saying:
“We have resolved a communication problem between Tutanota’s internet provider and our network that affected some mobile customers’ ability to access the email site. There was never any blocking.”
Tutanota is the latest email provider to be blocked by Russia after the country blocked access to ProtonMail last year. In addition to currently being blocked in Russia, Tutanota's services have also been blocked in Egypt since October of last year.
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Via The Register
