The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, responded to the call of ex-representatives of the American intelligence services in a letter to the US Congress not to restrict IT corporations.

“The motivation is simple: there is a battle between authoritarianism and democracy.

Authoritarianism (they are also about us) uses cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns to change the world order,” Zakharova wrote in her Telegram channel.

“Democracy and freedom of speech, according to the intelligence community, are achieved by shutting up the mouths of all those who disagree and removing from the information space everything that would contradict the guidelines imposed from above, including by the same community.”

As Zakharova stressed, there is no better evidence of who is behind Facebook's decision** "to not remove extremist materials against Russians."

“In the well-knit ranks of guardians for national security, well-known representatives of the American establishment advocate: the notorious Leon Panetta (former US Secretary of Defense and former director of the CIA, among other things, a member of the Board of Directors of Oracle), Francis Townsend (former Assistant to the President of the United States for Counterterrorism and National Security ), James Clapper (ex-Director of National Intelligence), Jay Johnson (ex-Secretary of Homeland Security) and other equally remarkable personalities, ”the diplomat said, speaking about the authors of the letter to Congress.

Zakharova also explained why the ex-representatives of the American intelligence services "spoke on such a burning topic."

“Many are shareholders and members of the boards of directors of large corporations, including the IT sector.

This is how the American authorities, intelligence agencies, corporations and large media holdings merged into a passionate embrace.

It is sometimes absolutely impossible to understand where the struggle for freedom of speech begins and freedom of speech itself ends.

The main thing is that they call it democracy, ”said the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Zakharova also stated that the leaders of the intelligence community who turned to Congress are united not only by “patterns of a career path”, but also by special “attention” to Russia.

“All of them actively promoted a fake about alleged Russian interference in the American elections,” the diplomat said.

- The obsession with the fix "to deal with Russia" still does not let go of some representatives of the US security establishment.

This is just a pretext, a front for keeping technological monopolies in almost uncontrolled power over public opinion, not only in the US itself, but throughout the world.

  • Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova

  • RIA News

  • © Press Service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation

Zakharova added that “behind the loud and sometimes beautiful slogans about democracy lies a completely pragmatic and cynical calculation.”

She also mentioned Elon Musk, who announced his readiness to buy all shares of Twitter.

“And then Elon Max decided to look into the online store,” wrote the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

It is worth noting that the Democratic Party has already expressed its concern about Musk's possible purchase of all Twitter shares.

In particular, the head of the US Senate Judiciary Committee, Democrat Dick Durbin, fears the return of the 45th US President Donald Trump to the social network under Musk, which, according to Durbin, “is not in the interests of the Americans.”

"Detect and Defuse"

Recall that last week, the US media circulated an open letter from former officials of the Department of Defense, intelligence services, the Department of Homeland Security and the US Cyber ​​Command, who call for a review of "a bill proposed by Congress regarding technology companies, for compliance with national security interests."

As the authors of the letter specified, we are talking about a draft law of the House of Representatives and the Senate, which provides for "non-discriminatory access" for all "business users", including "foreign competitors", to American digital resources.

"The bill would inadvertently limit the ability of these platforms to fight disinformation and ensure the safety of their users in the US and the rest of the world," the letter said.

The address to Congress also says that a battle is brewing between authoritarianism and democracy, in which the former uses all means available to it, including a massive disinformation campaign and threats of cyber attacks, to change the existing world order.

“We must respond to these global challenges,” the letter says.

“At a time of heightened danger, American technology companies have begun to engage more actively with US government agencies and their allies in order to increase collective defense capability.”

Both in the public space and behind the scenes, these companies have taken swift action to block "malicious actors on their platforms."

“Such a partnership made it possible to identify and neutralize a number of serious security threats emanating from Russia,” the authors of the document say.

In the face of “these growing threats,” they say, U.S. lawmakers should not be allowed to inadvertently undermine the ability of U.S. technology platforms to withstand the increasing risks of disinformation and cyberattacks, “especially at a time when the West continues to rely on the scale and reach of these companies to fight back against the Kremlin.

  • Capitol

  • Gettyimages.ru

  • © Michael Duva

“We call on congressional national security committees, including the House and Senate Committees on the Armed Services, Intelligence, and Homeland Security, to review all legislation that could interfere with key U.S. technology companies in their fight against cyber threats and national security risks, caused by the growing authoritarianism of Russia and China in the digital environment,” the letter says.

It is also emphasized that such a review will ensure that "the proposed bills do not provide advantages" to the opponents of the United States.

"Establish real censorship"

As Vladimir Shapovalov, deputy director of the Institute of History and Politics at Moscow State Pedagogical University, noted, IT giants like Google and Meta, which have “closest contacts with the American intelligence services,” are in fact “carrying out digital diktat and contributing to the formation of a totalitarian society, and not only in the United States.”

“These kinds of companies, in fact, extend their influence and politics to a large part of the world.

Thus, a single unified information space is being formed, in which information attacks on unfriendly political forces and countries are actively taking place, ”the expert said in a comment to RT.

Shapovalov called the most striking example of Google's "recent digital attack" on Russia.

In particular, he recalled the blocking of the account of the Duma TV channel on YouTube video hosting, as well as access to the recording of the briefing by Maria Zakharova dated March 17 and the official channel of the head of the Republic of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov.

In addition, the YouTube administration has restricted access to all RT and RTD channels, as well as other Russian media.

Facebook and Twitter also resorted to similar restrictions.

At the same time, Shapovalov noted that an attack of comparable power in these social networks was carried out by IT companies against Donald Trump, whose account was blocked by Twitter, access to the page of the 45th US President was also limited to Facebook, Instagram **, Snapchat, Twitch.

“In addition, pages associated with Trump have also blocked YouTube, Discord voice and video messenger, Pinterest photo hosting and other platforms.

Google and Apple have removed the Parler social network from their app stores, which Trump supporters planned to move to, ”Shapovalov said.

As the expert emphasized, all these restrictions, on the one hand, are manifestations of the “information war against the objectionable,” and, on the other hand, “clamping on freedom of speech.”

“Moreover, all this is happening in an absolutely undemocratic form, since it is accompanied by the inability to publish data that does not correspond to the information policy of these resources, the existence of which is already evident,” Shapovalov is sure.

In his opinion, hiding behind the “Russian case and reports of alleged misinformation”, in the US, IT companies “establish real censorship”, which does not correspond to the principles of democracy in any way.

“American intelligence agencies and those associated with them want to keep this order of things.

After all, digital dictatorship is used to achieve very specific political goals - this is the demonization of Russia and other objectionable people, as well as total control and unlimited power both in the United States and in the global dimension, ”Shapovalov said.

According to him, this is also evidenced by the situation around Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter.

“It will be quite difficult for him to complete the acquisition of this social network, since he is under significant pressure, primarily from the Democrats.

After all, this kind of deal means that they can lose control over this social network, ”the expert noted.

  • US President Joe Biden in the US Congress

  • AFP

  • © Shawn Thew

American political scientist Malek Dudakov takes a similar position.

However, according to him, despite the serious pressure of the liberal establishment, "the deal has already passed into the final stage."

“I see no legal grounds for its abolition.

Nevertheless, the Mask is waiting for the most unpleasant consequences.

On the part of the Democrats in power in the United States, there will be attempts to convict him of violating the law, to arrange difficulties for him in other areas.

For example, Tesla Corporation receives funding from the state, and this may also lead to difficulties, ”the analyst said in an interview with RT.

Dudakov noted that a real “witch hunt” is now underway in the United States.

“Moreover, it is carried out even against those who take a neutral position on the issue of confrontation between Russia and Ukraine.

In addition, this applies in general to everyone who does not belong to the American liberal establishment, which, wanting to stay in power, win elections and fight in information wars with the Russian Federation and other opponents of the collective West, uses close ties with IT giants for its own purposes. , the expert believes.

According to Dudakov, the way American tech companies, including Google, Facebook and Twitter, moderate content on their platforms "satisfies all the hallmarks of pure censorship."

“This is censorship against dissidents, which is aimed, among other things, at those who do not condemn Russia or sympathize with it, and also simply do not like the liberal establishment,” the analyst believes.

Dudakov is confident that through IT corporations in the United States, American intelligence services and representatives of the Democratic Party in Washington "can pursue their goals of demonizing Russia" and other objectionable countries, "as well as give instructions on what content to block."

“Digital monopolies and US intelligence are closely linked and constantly cooperate.

The activity of IT giants is largely aimed at confrontation with other countries, primarily with Russia, ”concluded the analyst.

* Meta Platforms Inc (owner of Facebook and Instagram) - the organization was recognized as extremist, its activities are prohibited in Russia by the decision of the Tverskoy Court of Moscow dated 03/21/2022.

** Meta product, activity recognized as extremist, banned in Russia by decision of the Tverskoy Court of Moscow dated 03/21/2022.