Last week,Russia invaded Ukraineon President Vladimir Putins orders.
More recent coverage has centered around Russias censorship, and Big Techs response to the war.
All that has affected what the internet looks like in both countries.
On February 24, Russias telecom regulator, Roskomnadzor, ordered local media to broadcastonly state-verified information.
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Both companies haveacknowledgedservice disruptions.
Amid all this, Russian users are trying to find ways to evade censorship.
Some Russian ISPs are now restricting bothTwitterandFacebook.
Ordinary Russians are using@Meta’s apps to express themselves and organize for action.
As mentioned earlier, YouTube has limited some of Russias state-owned news channels.
Inour story last week, we highlighted Telegrams critical role in this war.
As a result, the company briefly considered restricting the functionality of the channel in Russia and Ukraine.
This leads us to severe criticism of how Big Tech has handled the situation.
Theyre never prepared for anything.
Because we let them get away with it.
There have been plenty of attacks on Russian cyberspace as well.
Last week, hacker collective Anonymous declared war against Putin, and claimed to havetaken down several government websites.
Ukraines volunteerIT Armyis also working to attack Russian and Belarusian government websites and bank networks.
As the war goes on, the country will demand more restrictions from companies to form a pro-Russia narrative.
Today, the authorities askedGoogle to restrict adsthat contained incorrect information about Ukrainian casualties.
Thats a huge moderation task to determine what counts as accurate in this context.
In that case, they might just have to rely on notifications from apps.
Currently, the internet situation in both countries is contrasting.
That’s one heck of a mixed bag.
He likes to say “Bleh.
That’s one heck of a mixed bag.
He likes to say “Bleh.”
