Susan Wojcicki, chief executive officer at Google’s YouTube, said the internet giant still holds free speech as a “core value,” in the company’s first public comments since it acceded to a Russian government order to remove material from political opponents. Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Apple Inc. pulled a voting app from opposition leader Alexey Navalny ahead of …
YouTube CEO responds to Russia censorship accusations Read More
You’ll now be able to watch videos on YouTube and almost any other service with the aid of automatic English-Russian translation dubbing. This could be really helpful to those studying Russian. Meanwhile, Yandex says more language pairs will be added to the system soon. “To completely erase language barriers on the internet is one of our biggest challenges. We set about …
Yandex introduces automatic English-Russian video dubbing feature Read More
Western media news websites are being hijacked by pro-Russian trolls to spread propaganda and disinformation supporting the Kremlin, according to research published by a British university on Monday. The Crime and Research Security Institute at Cardiff University said it had unearthed evidence from 32 major news outlets in 16 countries that have been targeted via …
Russian authorities have demanded that YouTube block jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s popular channel that has published viral investigations into corruption and fueled anti-government protests in recent years, his senior ally said Friday. The request comes less than a week after Russia’s internet regulator Roskomnadzor blocked 49 Navalny-linked websites and sought to ban his associates’ Twitter accounts. …
Russian authorities have blocked jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s mirror website using the tools that help telecom providers “isolate” Russia’s section of the internet, The Moscow Times reports, citing privacy NGO Roskomsvoboda. Navalny rolled out the website navalny.app after authorities blocked his main website navalny.com alongside nearly 50 sites linked to him Monday because of “banned extremist …
A Russian action film with coded references to Russian politics became Netflix’s most-streamed film last week. The hero of ‘Major Grom: Plague Doctor’ is incorruptible cop Igor Grom who does battle with a mass-murdering IT billionaire bearing an uncanny resemblance to Telegram messaging service founder Pavel Durov. Netflix released ‘Major Grom: Plague Doctor’ — their …
In early June Tinkoff, the Russian digital banking giant, announced the beta version of its free voice assistant ‘Oleg,’ making it available to all mobile users in Russia. ‘Oleg’ is also unique in the world in that “it can be easily activated both in the Tinkoff super app and via popular messengers such as Telegram …
Tinkoff offers virtual phone secretary to all Russian mobile phone users Read More
Netflix, the world’s largest streaming platform, has bought the rights to Russia’s “Brother” (“Brat”) films and will make them available from June 1. The “Brother” series are Russian neo-noir crime dramas written and directed by Alexei Balabanov in 1997 and 2000. The series tells a story of Danila Bogrov, who has just returned from fighting …
Netflix acquires rights to Russia’s cult ‘Brat’ films Read More
Russian online video major IVI (ivi.ru) announced today a $250 million funding round involving top state and private investors. This is one of the biggest deals of the past years on the Russian tech scene, and an all-time record in the online video segment. The consortium of investors includes several big names, combining two major …
YouTube has started deleting hyperlinks to Alexey Navalny’s ‘SmartVote‘ project — a strategic voting initiative designed to identify candidates with the best statistical odds of defeating politicians from Russia’s ruling political party, United Russia. On Thursday, the media outlet Sota Vision reported that YouTube removed its SmartVote hyperlink from a video streamed in August 2019 during opposition protests …
YouTube deletes hyperlinks to Navalny voting initiative Read More
Last week MTS, a leading Russian mobile operator, launched a new online video platform for mobile devices and smart TVs, made available in the Google Play and Apple App stores. Dubbed ‘Kion,’ this video streaming platform “features thousands of films and hundreds of TV channels”. It will also be “the exclusive home for a slate …
MTS launches new online video service to get among market leaders Read More
Yesterday Sber, the state-controlled financial and digital giant, announced a binding agreement to fully acquire Muzlab, a leader in the Russian B2B audio streaming market. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed, but industry publication VC.RU heard it was between 500 million rubles ($6.5 million) and 1 billion rubles ($13 million at the current exchange rate). Muzlab has developed a …
