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Ukraine war: Russian authorities block Facebook and Twitter

The power of social networks first became known when the so-called Arab Spring took place. Here, the population used Facebook to arrange demonstrations and civil disobedience. In order to contain the dangers to their own government, Russian politicians now apparently feel compelled to do something about social networks, as well as independent media. They have now been unceremoniously all but blocked.

The Power of Social Media

There is probably no other country in the world that has taken such advantage of social media as Russia. Not only did the country use fake news to presumably influence Donald Trump’s election as the 58th president of the United States of America in 2016, but on top of that, the government uses Facebook and Co. quite covertly to sell the made-up news of its state media houses to its own population as truths. Social media responded promptly. In the wake of the Ukraine war, Facebook blocked the accounts of Russian media platforms gazeta.ru, zvezda.ru, lenta.ru and RIA Novisti. These were spreading fake news around the invasion of Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/netblocks/status/1497941791177416711?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1497941791177416711%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.macwelt.de%2Fnews%2FRussland-sperrt-Facebook-Twitter-und-unabhaengige-Medien-11192155.html

In the view of the prosecutor’s office in Moscow, this would violate the fundamental rights of the media houses, as well as the rights of the Russian population. The response from Russian politicians was prompt. Without further ado, there was a comprehensive restriction of the U.S. social network. Only a few providers can still allow their users to access the service. Access is probably only possible via a virtual private network (VPN). However, there are only a few of these left in Russia. The reason for this is that politicians are vehemently fighting private use of the Internet.

Netblocks brings blocking to light

The service provider Netblocks has found out that there has obviously been an Internet blockade on the part of politicians. This has confirmed that probably only just under 40 percent of users can actually get through to Facebook. The rest fail to access the social network. But Facebook is not the only target of Russian politics. According to Netblocks, in order not to inflame the mood in the country, the short message service Twitter was also virtually banned from Russia’s Internet just a few hours after Facebook was blocked.

Fight against “anti-Russian” attitude

The authority responsible for the blocking apparently has a very clear justification for its action. On its own website, for example, the Russian Internet supervisory authority accuses the networks in question of presenting content that is quite obviously anti-Russian. Accordingly, it is apparently necessary to issue a clear warning in order to protect the population and especially minors. Ironically, the authority with the name Roskomnadzor used the Chinese platform TikTok for the warning words. But the focus is clearly not only on social media. The Russian government has already banned independent media companies from the Internet as well.

It is precisely these that the Russian government accuses of spreading false information among the population. The Internet supervisory authority considers the facts that the Russian military is attacking the Ukrainian civilian population and launching air offensives against the neighboring country to be “false”. The authority is already thin-skinned when it comes to the title of current events. For example, anyone who calls the actions a “war” or an “attack” is excluded from media coverage. Violators are not only threatened with exclusion from news events. On top of that, one must reckon with a hefty fine.

Simon Lüthje

I am co-founder of this blog and am very interested in everything that has to do with technology, but I also like to play games. I was born in Hamburg, but now I live in Bad Segeberg.

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The power of social networks first became known when the so-called Arab Spring took place. Here, the population used Facebook to arrange demonstrations and civil disobedience. In order to contain the dangers to their own government, Russian politicians now apparently feel compelled to do something about social networks, as well as independent media. They have … (Weiterlesen...)

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