Wix Website Builder Blocks Russian Users as U.S. Sanctions Bite

The website builder and operator Wix announced Tuesday that it will no longer offer services to residents of Russia, a move that comes after the U.S. introduced new sanctions against Moscow over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“As a result of the new regulations, we are required to restrict access to Wix services for Russian residents from Sept. 12, 2024, and block their accounts,” the company said in a statement on its website.
Western tech companies began discontinuing services in Russia after the United States in June widened sanctions that targeted, among other activities, the country’s access to foreign technology, equipment, software and IT services.
Wix said it plans to restrict access to both free and paid accounts, adding that it will take existing websites built by Russian residents offline.
On Monday, the productivity and note-taking app Notion started banning Russia-based users from its platform due to U.S. sanctions, as did Google’s serverless data warehouse service BigQuery.
“The restrictions apply to a broad range of U.S. enterprise software products including product management, product lifecycle management, business intelligence, and customer relationship management,” Notion said in a statement.
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