Paywall circumvention site Archive.today and its related domains, such as .is and .ph, have been blocked by Russian authorities as indicated by error pages that appear when accessing these websites.
As of Monday, the sites were inaccessible when TechCrunch checked from the U.S. East Coast.
A Russian-language page stated: “Access to the Internet resource Blocked by decision of the public authorities,” referring to the Russian agency overseeing internet censorship, Roskomnadzor.
According to Roskomnadzor’s listing for Archive.is, the authorities confirmed “access is limited to the page” but did not provide a reason at the time. Archive.today was not shown as blocked based on TechCrunch’s assessment.
A Roskomnadzor representative did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s inquiries outside Moscow business hours.
TechCrunch was still able to reach Archive sites on different devices and networks and archive a web page irrespective of the block. The extent and origin of the block remain unclear.
Archive.today is a notable site for preserving website copies, including content generally shielded by paywalls or subscriptions. Wikipedia editors recently decided to remove numerous links to Archive.today after finding that its code allegedly used visitors’ browsers without their consent to send junk traffic to a critic’s website.
The operators of Archive.today have not provided a comment.
(h/t Ryan O’Horo on Bluesky)