the wide repression of President Vladimir Putin against the media and social networks indicates the government’s determination to drown out any dissenting voice on the Ukraine conflictEven if that could mean cutting Russia’s internet network off from the rest of the world, experts say
An example of the attempt to isolate information that could jeopardize its invasion of Ukraine is the blocking of the social network Facebook.
The often criticized social network is part of a network of information sources that can challenge the The Kremlin’s preferred perspective on the justice and necessity of its invasion.
The Facebook blocking and Twitter restriction announced on Friday came on the same day that Moscow backed jail terms for media that publish “false information” about the military.
Russia’s motivation “is to suppress political challenges at a very tense time for (Vladimir) Putin and the regime, when it comes to those who are asking very difficult questions about why russia continues to carry out this warsaid Steven Feldstein, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Russia thus joins the tiny club of countries that exclude Facebook, the world’s largest social network, along with China and North Korea.
Moscow was expected to quickly overpower its neighbor, but the campaign has already shown signs it could last longer and could unleash great military ferocity.
“It is a censorship tool of last resortFeldstein added. “They’re shutting down an entire platform instead of trying to block specific pages or using all sorts of other mechanisms that are traditionally used,” he said.
Earlier this week, the independent monitoring group OVD-Info said that more than 7,000 people in Russia had been detained in demonstrations over the Moscow-launched invasion of Ukraine.
The web monitoring group NetBlocks highlighted that Russia’s moves against the social media giants come amid protests “that coordinate and mobilize through social networks and messaging applications”.
Meanwhile, the war is taking place during a period of unprecedented repression against the Russian opposition, which has included the murder, imprisonment or expulsion of protest leaders from the country.
‘No access to the truth’
Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine last week, the Russian authorities have increased pressure against independent media despite the freedom of the press in the country was already rapidly declining.
In this context, Facebook plays a key role in the distribution of information in Russia, even despite facing withering criticism in the West on issues ranging from political division to adolescent mental health.
Natalia Krapiva, a tech legal adviser for rights group Access Now, said social media has been a place where independent and critical voices have been speaking out about the invasion.
“Facebook is one of the key platforms in Russiahe said, adding that his loss is “a devastating blow to access to independent information and to resistance to war.”
Russia has received unprecedented sanctions from the West for the invasion, but also rejections both symbolic and significant from sources ranging from sports organizations to American technology companies.
The parent company of Facebook, Meta, and Twitter, however, have become involved in the very sensitive issue of information by block the dissemination of media linked to the Russian state.
Russia’s media regulator targeted both, with Roskomnadzor accusing Facebook of discriminating against state media.
Big US tech firms like Apple and Microsoft have announced the cessation of the sale of their products in Russiawhile other companies announced “pauses” from certain commercial activities or links.
On Friday, US internet service provider Cogent Communications said it had “terminated its contracts” with customers in Russia.
The Washington Post reported that Cogent has “several dozen clients in Russia, and many of them, like the state-owned telecommunications giant Rostelecom, are close to the government.”
Cyberattacks affect Russian websites, the conflict is felt in the technological field
What does it mean that Russia is going to have its own internet?
It is exactly the kind of measure that Ukrainian officials have been campaigning heavily for, calling for Russia to be deprived of everything from Netflix to Instagram.
However, experts like Krapiva worry about what this could mean for critical or dissenting voices within Russia, something in short, “counterproductive”.
“There is a risk that people do not have access to the truth,” he stressed. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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