Amid an unjust war, Moscow ramps up digital repression
Author: Adrian Shahbaz
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The internet had been one of the few remaining avenues for independent thought in Russia. But popular uproar over the government’s war of aggression has led to a ruthless crackdown on online dissent and censorship has become a central tool for the Russian government to silence its critics. We invited Adrian Shahbaz, Vice President for Research and Analysis at the prodemocracy organisation Freedom House, to make digital repression in Russia tangible. Adrian censored his text to shows us the extent of the Russian government’s control on access to information that targets what seems to us as the most basic facts.
During an April 2022 appearance on a popular television news programme, the editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya and RT, two state-controlled outlets, made a startling statement: “This is the turning point to look at everything in our country a different way. Starting with the phrase in our constitution that “censorship is prohibited”” (Davis 2022). The words from Margarita Simonyan, one of the Kremlin’s most ardent propagandists, constituted an admission of the limits of disinformation and a desire to breach them. The regime would need to intensify its digital repression to legitimise its brutal and senseless war against the people of Ukraine.
Freedom House, the prodemocracy organisation where I work, has long rated Russia’s online environment as “Not Free” (Freedom House 2021). Anti-corruption activists have faced legal charges and extra-judicial attacks for posting YouTube videos detailing the shady dealings of President Vladimir Putin and his clique. Courts have regularly handed out fines for unobtrusive commentary, such as a social media post stating, “Family is where the love is. Support LGBT+ families,” or a comment below a picture of Putin visiting Finland asking, “Couldn’t he stay there?” (Tsoi 2019). Authorities accused the editor of a student-run online journal of inciting minors to engage in “illegal activities” for creating a video explainer stating that fellow students could not be expelled for attending pro-Alexei Navalny protests (Lokot 2021). Nonetheless, many Russians went online to voice and read opinions unseen on traditional media, even if the consequences remained stark.
The 2022 invasion fundamentally altered the status quo. Mirroring a brutal crackdown on anti-war protests throughout the country, the State Duma fast-tracked over a dozen pieces of legislation that further undermined the constitution’s nominal free-expression protections. A law passed less than a month after the escalation of hostilities criminalised the spread of so-called “false information” about the Russian military. Over 3,000 people face administrative fines for “discrediting the armed forces”, while 72 face criminal penalties of up to 15 years in prison. Targets include a former mayor, a theatre director and a priest. In July, local lawmaker Aleksei Gorinov received a seven-year prison sentence, the first under the new law, for stating “Our country is waging an aggression” during a council meeting streamed on YouTube.
Moscow has taken further steps to restrict the availability of information at odds with its propaganda. Over 5,000 websites have been blocked since the most recent escalation of violence, according to digital rights group RosKomSvoboda (Meduza 2022). The list includes independent news outlets, human rights organisations, prominent foreign news sites and information sources from Ukraine. Numerous domestic media organisations have closed, after they realised that objective reporting about the war had become untenable within the country. Russia’s communications regulator blocked US social media companies over their efforts to combat Kremlin-backed disinformation. Employees at Russia-based tech platforms have come under tremendous pressure to embrace the government’s authoritarian messaging. A former Meduza publisher and Yandex employee has been prosecuted for posting pictures of the Bucha massacre to his Instagram page (Novaya Gazeta 2022). Even Wikipedia has found itself in the courts’ crosshairs for hosting an article on the “Russian invasion of Ukraine” and for publishing pages detailing Russian forces’ criminal actions.
Not all of Moscow’s censorship efforts have been successful. Many news organisations have fled the country and found creative ways to circumvent online blocking. Russians’ usage of virtual private networks (VPNs) and other anti-censorship tools has skyrocketed. Nonetheless, prospects for internet freedom remain bleak. Moscow has recently introduced policies and technical upgrades to make it easier to cut off the country from the global internet during political crises, allowing it to close digital tunnels to the outside world. Through foreign aggression and digital repression, Putin is plunging Russians into further isolation.
Adrian Shahbaz (@adrianshahbaz) is Vice President for Research and Analysis at Freedom House.
Bibliography
Davis, J. [@JuliaDavisNews] (2022): Meanwhile on Russian state TV: head of RT Margarita Simonyan remembers her days as a proud pioneer drummer, demands less freedom, more censorship—just like China or the USSR. "We're all waiting for this," she claims, Twitter, https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1514339222118883334.
Freedom House (2021): Internet Freedom: Russia, https://freedomhouse.org/country/russia/freedom-net/2021.
Lokot, T. (2021): Russian authorities crack down on student journalism outlet over protest explainer video, Advox, https://advox.globalvoices.org/2021/04/26/russian-authorities-crack-down-on-student-journalism-outlet-over-protest-explainer-video/.
Meduza (2022): Attorney General: Russia has blocked 138,000 websites amid war against Ukraine, https://meduza.io/en/news/2022/08/08/attorney-general-russia-has-blocked-138-000-websites-amid-war-against-ukraine.
Novaya Gazeta (2022): Meduza’s ex-publisher Ilya Krasilshchik on criminal action against him in Russia: “Let them rot in hell”, https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2022/04/22/meduzas-ex-publisher-ilya-krasilshchik-on-criminal-action-against-him-in-russia-let-them-rot-in-hell-news.
Tsoi, I. (2019): A resident of the Urals has been fined for “disrespecting the authorities" over a comment about Putin diving to the bottom of the Gulf of Finland. He advised the president to stay there, The Insider, https://theins.ru/news/190710.