The Russian government demonstrated earlier this month that it not only knows how to obstruct Internet freedom, but also uphold it. A high-level government official who appeared to have threatened to block Twitter in Russia has been officially reprimanded.
Maxim Ksenzov, the Deputy Director of Roskomnadzor, the Russian telecom market watchdog, complained on May 16 that Twitter has been “consistent” in ignoring Russian demands that certain blacklisted pages be removed, thus making the blocking of this resource in Russia “almost inevitable.”
The statement that stunned so many market players, and indeed the head of the Russian government, was this: “We can block Twitter or Facebook in Russia within several minutes even tomorrow. We do not see big risks in it.”
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, an active user of social networks, was quick to react, writing on his Facebook page that some government officials would do better “switching their brains on” instead of “making interviews about closing networks.” Ksenzov hastily backtracked, saying that “no one was talking about shutting down the popular social network” and his words were but “a verbal warning to the Twitter management.”
The conflict-ridden interview resulted in a formal admonition for Ksenzov from his bosses – another clumsily handled move that effectively undid a prior attempt by a Roskomnadzor spokesman to portray Ksenzov as communicating “an official standpoint of the agency.”
The vociferous official may have been given a talking-to, but his controversial “signal to global Internet players” did have an effect. Just three days after the statement, Twitter “blocked access to Ukrainian far-right movement Pravy Sektor’s account in Russia,” obliquely indicating that the service had taken the warning seriously.
Russia’s most hawkish public figures have sought to bring the Internet under control before, threatening to silence global communication channels like Skype and Gmail. On August 1, 2014, they will have another chance to effect change on the Russian Internet – this time by pinning down Russia’s most popular bloggers.
Sources: Comnews, ITAR-TASS, Kommersant, Vedomosti, Rusbase
