The Russian government is likely to hire the services of Mail.Ru Group, a leading Internet group, to boost voter turnout in next year’s presidential election, the business publication RBC reported Wednesday. The authorities bet such a digital strategy is likely designed to dispel concerns about a weak mandate for Russia’s next president. According to RBC, a …
After exactly three years, Russian lawmakers have abandoned the government’s so-called “bloggers’ registry,” where popular bloggers were listed and theoretically subjected to more stringent media regulations, report the Russian media. According to a law passed in 2014, Russia’s telecom regulator Roskomnadzor has added several hundred mass media accounts, online communities, and public figures to the registry, …
Censors retreat: Russian bloggers no longer required to officially registered Read More
Early on July 9 Anton Nossik, 51, passed away. He was with friends at a dacha when he suffered a sudden heart attack. One of the founders of the Russian Internet, Nossik founded several large news sites, including Lenta.ru and Gazeta.ru. “It was Nossik who came up with [a vision for] Russian online media, and …
Anton Nossik, one of the founders of the Russian Internet, dies of heart attack Read More
“We tried fighting Internet piracy, but unfortunately piracy won,” wrote an heir to famous Soviet writer Andrei Strugatsky on his Facebook page, adding that it is “completely impossible” to defeat the enormous amount of illegal content. Two out of three Russians believe that viewing and downloading pirated content is legal, according to a survey conducted …
Issued Thursday, a 27-page Presidential executive order titled “Development Strategies for Russian Information Society from 2017 to 2030” is instructing the federal government to devise new mechanisms to rein in online media and limit Internet users’ anonymity. The Russian president is giving the government six months to reform its strategy for policing “means of providing …
Executive order may put Internet media and online anonymity under new pressure Read More
Russian startup NtechLab, which creates “algorithms as intelligent as humans and as efficient as machines,” has raised $1.5 million, reports Russian business daily Vedomosti, citing exchanges with the company’s founders and the involved investors. Led by Impulse VC, a venture fund which is reportedly affiliated to Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, the fund has also involved …
Russian billionnaire invests in face recognition technology Read More
Facebook will pay Russia’s new 18% value-added tax as a foreign company selling digital content in Russia. The social network has joined a hundred other foreign companies that have registered to pay the VAT with Russia’s tax service. Among these companies are Alibaba, Amazon, Apple Distribution International, Bloomberg, Financial Times, GoDaddy, Google Commerce Ltd, Microsoft Ireland, Netflix International B.V., …
Facebook and other global digital giants agree to pay Russia’s new VAT on digital content Read More
On Sunday, as Russia was witnessing mass anti-corruption protests, Yandex’s local news feed for Moscow prominently featured trivialities such as weather reports and promotions for the city’s “Spring Festival.” On the national level, protests were overshadowed by news like Russia’s reaction to Kiev banning its Eurovision contestant, reports The Moscow Times. It’s no secret that …
Yandex’s news service almost blind to mass anti-corruption protests Read More
The Russian government’s recent battle against online porn has electrified our country’s social networks. But much to the disappointment of the global porn industry, this so-called battle is, in fact, not much of a fight. Yes, the authorities have indeed blocked a hundred extremely popular sites. But the reason why is fairly banal: petty local …
How Russian authorities battle against online porn — in vain Read More
Russia’s Sistema Asia Fund has just led a $6 million round of financing for Wooplr Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs an eponymous fashion discovery app for women. The news was reported on Monday by Vedomosti, a leading Russian business daily, based on exchanges with a fund representative. An unnamed source close to the fund added that Sistema …
Russia’s Sistema Asia Fund leads $6 million round for Indian fashion discovery app Read More
A Russian technology executive who was named in a dossier containing unverified allegations about connections between President Trump and the Russian government has sued BuzzFeed News, which published the information. The defamation suit was filed in court on Friday in Broward County, Fla., according to lawyers for the executive, Aleksej Gubarev, the chief of XBT, …
Russian tech executive sues BuzzFeed over unverified Trump dossier Read More
DailyMotion, a New York-headquartered video sharing platform and a property of the French group Vivendi, is likely to be banned soon in Russia, following a ruling by a Moscow court. The video hosting site was sued by TV channel Pyatnitsa, a property of Gazprom Media, for having provided access to proprietary contents without the rights owner’s consent. Pyatnitsa’s claim referred to …
DailyMotion to be banned in Russia due to copyright infringements Read More
