Four out of five Russians access the Internet daily (in 2001, only 2%). Most of these are young respondents, but the number of older users is growing. Two thirds of the respondents regularly use social networks, and this proportion has tripled since 2011. The most popular social networks are VK and YouTube, and their audience continues to grow (for example, VK’s audience has tripled in 13 years). 80% of the respondents use messengers, and this number has doubled in 8 years. Whatsapp and Telegram are the most popular, and their audience is growing. A quarter of Russians use VNP services at least from time to time, over the past two years their share has hardly changed.
Internet
The role of television and the Internet as the main sources of news and the TOP most popular Russian journalists
Television remains the main source of information by audience reach and trust among Russians. At the same time, the combined audience of various news sources on the Internet exceeded the audience of TV news. Younger, educated and affluent respondents are more likely to get their news from the Internet. Older people, as well as less affluent and less educated respondents, are more likely to watch news on television. The audience of telegram channels has stabilized at the level of a quarter of the country’s population after a sharp increase in 2022. The audience of video blogs is slowly increasing, but the majority of respondents do not watch them. The most popular journalists, leading socio-political programs were V. Solovyov, O. Skabeeva, E. Popov, M. Simonyan and D. Kisilev. Independent bloggers and journalists are losing their audience.
The main sources of information of Russians
Television remains the main source of information for Russians and respondents are more likely to
express confidence in this particular source. Nevertheless, there are significant differences in
socio-demographic groups. At the same time, there is an increase in the number of respondents
using Telegram channels as sources of news about what is happening, since the beginning of the
year, the audience of Telegram channels has tripled.
Internet, social networks and blocking
Television, social networks and online media are the main sources of information. In the wake of the “special operation”, trust in television has grown, while trust in internet sources has sunk. The banned social networks keep losing users. There is no unambiguous opinion on blocking and restrictions on the Internet in the society: Russians are rather against it, while more than half of respondents aren’t against Internet censorship as such.
Internet, social networks and VPN
68% of respondents access the Internet every day, the growth of users is observed in all age groups, except for respondents aged 18-24. Nevertheless, for most, television remains the main source of information. Over the past month, more than a quarter of respondents have faced the inability to access familiar digital services. About a quarter of all respondents use VPN services, in the group of 18-24 years – half.
Twitter blocking
More than a half of Russians (54%) heard about Roskomnadzor’s intention to block Twitter. Opinions about the purpose of the blocking are divided – 40% believe it is necessary to combat extremism, 37% believe that blocking Twitter is aimed at restricting freedom of speech. This is primarily the opinion of young people and the audience of Telegram channels.
Individuals using the Internet
This survey was carried out November 21–27, 2019 with a representative sample of all Russian urban and rural residents. The sample comprised 1616 people age 18 or older from 137 localities in 50 regions of the Russian Federation. The survey was conducted as a personal interview in respondents’ homes. The answer distribution is presented as […]
Repressive laws
This survey took place between March 21-27, 2019 and was conducted throughout all of Russia in both urban and rural settings. The survey was carried out among 1600 people over the age of 18 in 137 localities of 50 of the country’s regions. The survey was conducted as a personal interview in respondents’ homes. The […]
The number of Internet users
This survey took place between October 18–24, 2018 and was conducted throughout all of Russia in both urban and rural settings. The survey was carried out among 1600 people over the age of 18 in 136 localities of 52 of the country’s regions. The survey was conducted as a personal interview in respondents’ homes. The […]
Channels of information
This survey took place between August 23–30, 2018 and was conducted throughout all of Russia in both urban and rural settings. The survey was carried out among 1600 people over the age of 18 in 136 localities of 52 of the country’s regions. The survey was conducted as a personal interview in respondents’ homes. The […]