Vladimir Putin on December 22, 2020 in Moscow.

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Aleksey Nikolskyi / SPUTNIK / SIPA

Russia wants "a sovereign Internet".

In recent days, the Russian authorities have been trying to curb calls for mobilization against the power in place on social networks.

Multiple calls to demonstrate, to demand the release of Alexeï Navalny, have totaled hundreds of millions of views on TitkTok, the app popular with teenagers, but also on YouTube, the platform favored by many young people for information in Russia. .

The traditional media - especially televised - being under the control of the Kremlin, the Internet has today become one of the last spaces in which the opponents of the power in place can express themselves, and where the protest against the authorities is rumbling.

A turn of the screw on the "Runet"

The Russian authorities have in recent years started to tighten up the “Runet” (Russian Internet) in the name of the fight against extremism, terrorism and the protection of minors.

Catch-all concepts according to detractors of the regime, who see in them attempts at censorship.

Russia also adopted in 2019 a law for the development of a sovereign Internet.

The Russian state can block websites if they are found guilty of "censorship" or "discrimination".

The authorities deny wanting to build a national network under control, as is the case in China, but this is exactly what NGOs and opponents fear.

Fines of up to 4 million rubles

Reacting to the wave of pro-Navalny content that flooded major platforms this week, Russian telecommunications gendarme Roskomnadzor threatened social networks with fines - up to 4 million rubles (43,880 euros at the current rate) - in the name of the protection of the under 18s.

Roskomnadzor also indicated on Friday that TikTok had "deleted 38% of information implicating minors in dangerous illegal actions", adding that VKontakte - the Russian Facebook - had deleted 50% of these messages, Instagram 17% and YouTube 50 %.

For its part, Facebook, which owns Instagram, said it had not complied with the authorities' demand.

“As this content does not go against our community standards, it stays on our platform,” a Facebook spokesperson said Friday evening.

"Few means" to block social networks

Russia is already blocking, with varying success, a number of sites that oppose or have refused to cooperate with the authorities, such as the social network LinkedIn.

In contrast, the country failed to ban encrypted Telegram messaging last year, after months of unsuccessful blocking attempts.

And now completely banning YouTube, which is owned by Google, seems very complicated.

"Roskomnadzor does not have a lot of funds," said Artiom Kozliouk, director of the association for the defense of digital freedoms Roskomsvoboda, "they have practically no leverage".

"It is also difficult to put pressure on Western social networks: by making concessions to a political regime, a blow would be dealt to their reputation on a global scale," he adds.

"Local initiatives" to compete with large platforms

In the case of TikTok, if the steps could be facilitated by proximity to China, an expert in Internet censorship, Moscow nevertheless comes up against a lack of knowledge of this popular social network among the youngest.

State broadcaster RT reported on Wednesday that courses would be offered to officials on understanding teen slang and on sites like TikTok.

Consequently, the authorities aim to build local competitors, like “RuTube”, belonging to the holding company Gazprom-Media (controlled by the Russian gas giant), a video platform that presents sanitized content.

So far, the site pales in comparison to YouTube.

But Gazprom-Media, now headed by Alexandre Jarov, former head of Roskomnadzor, announced that in 2021-2022, it would modernize RuTube and launch a “Russian TikTok” developed with the support of the Innopraktika foundation, headed by Katerina Tikhonova, daughter presumed from Vladimir Putin.

According to Artiom Kozliouk, after more than twenty years of the free Internet, these efforts are coming far too late.

The authorities "missed their chance".

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  • By the Web

  • Censorship

  • Russia

  • TikTok

  • Youtube

  • Alexei Navalny

  • Demonstration

  • Vladimir Poutine

  • Social networks