Social media has been in the Kremlin’s crosshairs for a long time, and criticism of the Ukraine invasion has culminated its blockade of the country. Russian telecoms regulator Roskomnadzor on Friday banned access to Twitter and Facebook, as well as several Western media outlets, for “systematic dissemination of disinformation” about what the Kremlin calls a “special operation for the protection of the Donetsk republics.” and Luhansk”. In parallel, the two chambers of the Russian parliament approved a bill on Friday that provides for prison sentences of up to 15 years for disseminating information about the war that does not conform to what the Kremlin considers true. In short, an information blackout at a decisive moment for the nation that has caused the suspension of activities in the country by international networks such as Bloomberg, CNN and the BBC.
The consequences of this law have been seen immediately. “It is with a heavy heart that we have decided to suspend our reporting activity within Russia,” Bloomberg agency editor John Micklethwait announced on Friday, hours after the Russian parliament’s decision. “Changes in the penal code, which seem designed to turn any independent reporter into a criminal by association alone, make it impossible to maintain any semblance of normal journalism within the country,” he added. The British network BBC also decided that its correspondents in Russia stop reporting for now because the new legislation “seems to criminalize independent journalism.” “It leaves us no choice as we assess the full implications of this unwelcome development. [de los eventos]”, stated its CEO, Tim Davie. “The safety of our staff is the priority and we are not prepared to expose them to the risk of criminal prosecution just for doing their job,” the manager lamented.
The American television network CNN, the two national German public television networks, ARD and ZFD, and the Italian public television RAI have also announced that they are suspending their broadcasts in the country. In the same sense, for the same reasons, EL PAÍS will not report temporarily from Russia either.
Adding to the threat posed by the new law to independent media outlets working in Russia is the direct censorship of the Kremlin, which has blocked broadcasts from several networks. Russian authorities announced on Friday the blockade of both the BBC and Germany’s Deutsche Welle, the American Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, and the newspaper jellyfish, founded by Russian journalists in Latvia. The official justification for the blockade is the alleged “systematic spread of disinformation”.
In addition to foreign channels, other Russian media have also fallen this week. The only remaining independent television, Dozhd, closed its broadcast with Swan Lakethe ballet that was repeated over and over again on television during the failed coup of the communist leadership in 1991. The channel maintains its activity, for the time being, on YouTube.
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Another media outlet that has disappeared due to this wave of censorship has been Echo de Moscow, a radio station founded in 1990. Both its broadcasts and its Internet portal have been closed. Its board of directors decided on Friday the total liquidation of the group.
Throughout this year the threats were repeated and this Friday they were fulfilled. Twitter and Facebook had this week blocked the Kremlin’s Russia Today and Sputnik channels, thus joining the European Union’s initiative to ban both outlets on its territory. More than a year ago, Vladimir Putin charged against social networks because “in certain fields,” he said, “they are competing with the states and their audience reaches millions and millions of users.” The Russian president, who claims not to have any account on social networks, referred to the influence of these platforms in US politics. Putin made these statements 10 days after the arrest of the opposition Alexei Navalni and the protests that it provoked. In the following months, the activist and his team were declared extremists, and fines came one after another to the offices of Facebook, Twitter and Google, which owns YouTube, for failing to delete “inappropriate content” and “discriminating against Russian media.” ”.
Both WhatsApp and Instagram are part of Meta, formerly known as Facebook. The chat works normally, but the photo portal, very popular in Russia, was slowed down at the start of the war, as was the case with Twitter as a result of Navalny’s protests. Many users reported that private chats no longer worked or that it took a long time to download images.
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