Social media: How does Russia try to impose control over it?

Google and Mita (Facebook) faces the danger of fines with millions of dollars for not deleting the content that the Russian government considers illegal, but a closer look at the court papers reveals that these are often just leaflets on the protests supporting the opposition leader, imprisoned Alexei Navalny.

In the summer of 2018, a Russian poet wrote his poems under a pseudonym called "Viking Siberi", a caricature image on his Facebook account, in which he showed two heads with two heads, which is a symbol of the Russian al -Nabbah, but replaced the heads of the Nesrin with the pictures of Vladimir Putin and then Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev..

I attach the caricature to a short risk, saying, "The eagle is twice greater than others, and the twice of others lying and watching people with four eyes.And she ended with an emotional cry: "When will the Russians wake up to remove this infection?".

The Russian government asked Facebook to delete this post due to "its blatant lack of respect for the state, the constitution and the president of the Russian Federation".

Facebook did not comply and the post appeared in one of more than 60 lawsuits filed against Western social media in Russia this year, as fines were imposed on the company more than two million dollars.

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It is not clear the number of fines paid.But the cases highlight the difficulty of working in a country where restrictions are imposed on freedom of expression and political activity, most notably the judgment issued in June of the past year against the Anti -Corruption Foundation headed by the opposition leader, imprisoned Alexei Navalny, accusing it of being an "extremist" organization, onLike the Taliban movement and the "Islamic State" organization.

According to Andre Libpov, head of the commission supervising the Russian media, "Roskomnadzor", social media companies are obligated to find and remove "the most dangerous things", which said in an interview with the newspaper "Kommersant" to include "pornography for children, suicide, drugs, extremism and false news".

But the accurate examination of more than 600 listed in the lawsuit documents against Google, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter reveals that only nine relates to abuse of children online, or publish information about drugs, and only 12 publications talking about suicide.As for the majority of other publications, they are invitations to go out in demonstrations in support of the imprisoned exhibitions.

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Commenting on the focus on protecting the child in official statements, Sarkis Darinian, a legal expert in the Al -Wadshbah group, says freedom of expression, Roskovopoda, commenting on the focus on protecting the child in official data..

The body supervising the media in Russia did not respond to the BBC's request for comment, but President Putin's press spokesman said that the measures taken against social networking companies have nothing to do with control over them, but rather attempts to impose Russian law.

The pressure on social media companies returns to 2015 when a law entered into force. These companies are required to store personal data for Russian users on Russian territory and give the government a authority to fine or close their accounts, if it does not..

None of the Western companies complied with the Russian demand, which led to the closure of LinkedIn in 2016.Google, Meta and Twitter have been fascinated by more than 600 thousand dollars since the beginning of 2020.

In 2016, requests submitted by the Russian government began to Google, to remove videos from YouTube and prohibit specific search results, increasing quickly.

Reports issued by these companies show that they have received during the past ten years requests from Russia more than the rest of the world combined.Google says that a third of it is "national security".

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Like other western companies, Google is committed to some Russian requests and ignores others.

The efforts to control the spread of unwanted information on social media accelerated in early 2021 after Alexei Navalney returned to Russia from the hospital in Germany, where he received treatment from poisoning with poisonous Novichok gas..

Navalney was immediately arrested, which led to protests in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities, which were widely called through social media..

These protests and invitations to go out in demonstrations have prompted angry complaints by the "Roskomnadoz" Foundation.

Publications were quickly removed from the third largest popular social network in Russia: (VKontake) or (VK.com) who was then owned by the rich businessman close to power Ali Sher Othmanov, the former owner of Arsenal Football Club.

But Western social networks were less in response to Russian pressure, so Roskomandzur began to trial and fined them.

Its next step was, in March, slowing up the posts on Twitter, for the latter refusing to delete these and other photos and videos, and it became very slow in the download of videos.

Later in the year, Google and Apple were persuaded to remove an application for tactical vote from their employees, and the application was designed to help sympathizers with Navalney to the federation behind one candidate in the local elections, thus maximizing the opportunity to defeat the ruling Russia party candidate.

The head of the Navalny team, Ivan Zdanov, condemned the companies and described what they did as "a disgraceful work of political control".

She later published a part of Apple's message in a tweet, in which she indicated that the prosecutors said that the application allows "illegal intervention in the elections" and that Roskomandzur has warned the company that it promotes an "extremist organization".

The BBC requested an interview with Apple, Meta, Google and Twitter, but Google and Twitter refused to comment on the matter, and both Meta and Apple did not answer our questions..

Roskomandzur claims that she succeeded in deleting some posts, as well as voting application.

In May, it partially retreated from the action taken to slow Twitter, claiming that the company deleted 91 percent of a list of 5900 tweets.

Now, download photos and videos on Twitter continues to slowly, via mobile devices.

The tweets that Twitter deleted it after its fine is blocked only in Russia and is still a phenomenon outside it.

One of the tweets mentioned in the court documents was the re -publication of a tweet in January by a young Alexei activist, which included information about a pro -Navalny demonstration, the exit was planned on the next Saturday in the city of Negney Novgorod on the Volga River, east of Moscow.

Since the city authorities did not agree to the demonstration, Alexei chose his words carefully, describing the site as "the place you should not go to".He added: "Putin does not really want you to go there, so do not do!"

The irony is that this prevents Roskomandadozer from submitting Twitter to the court, and in the end, forcing it to delete the tweet.

The Russian users are currently appearing to a message in English that shows that the tweet "has been blocked in Russia in response to a legal request".

Elsewhere in the world, the tweet still appears naturally.

Alexei says he was not informed of blocking his tweet, and he only realized that BBC called him.He expressed his surprise that the original tweet about the protests that re -published it is still a phenomenon.

On the contrary, Alexander, a political activist in the town of Kostroma, in northwestern Moscow, received a message when his tweet was removed about Navalny's support..

His post also disappeared on VK.com Rossiol.

However, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram delete some content.

In the first half of 2021, he removed 1,800 on Facebook or Instagram, at the request of the Russian authorities.In its transparency report, the company ranked half of these materials that it has to do with "extremism".The number of times the government's requests did not mention.

Google's transparency report also indicates that he deleted either the results of research or YouTube videos after objections from the Russian authorities.It is more response now to these requests from the past.

Only 8 percent was rejected, and the requests of the Russian authorities in the first half of 2021, while the percentage was 50 percent in the same period in 2019.

"Internet sovereignty"

André Leipov, 42, is headed.

It was developed in 2019 and also includes a new system to reduce the speed of the flow of posts, download and ban them with the help of deep examination (DPI), which is a way to check the data flow online.

It is this tool that enabled Rosiam to slow Twitter in March 2021.

Russia has technical means to prevent social media companies, and the laws that can be provided for this.

It can be prohibited legally to not store the personal data of Russian users in Russia or its refusal to delete "harmful content".

As of the next year, it will be possible to be banned because there is no headquarters in the country.

Until now, Google has only one office (although the company describes it as a "legal body" and not an office.

YouTube is currently being threatened with a ban after the closure of the channels used by Russia Today's news channel, which is funded by the Kremlin in Germany..

However, at the end of last year, Russia increased financial fines on companies if it failed to delete illegal content and the court that hears the lawsuit against Google and Facebook may be imposed during the current session of December 24th.Annual in Russia.

Andrei Lipov told the Kommersant newspaper: "This stimulates the platforms," we have not yet resorted to these fines, but we will do that yet.

Mita did not reveal its revenues from Russia, but Google Gent at least a billion dollars in Russia, which paves the way for a fine of $ 100 million in this lawsuit..

A former Rosomandazor official, who asked not to be named, told the BBC that these new fines enable the Russian authorities to hit the western companies to harm them, adding that he is sure they would do so..