Social networks & apps

Russia urges LinkedIn to comply with personal data legislation

February 15, 2017

Roskomnadzor, the Russian telecom and Internet regulator, has initiated a legal procedure to block access to LinkedIn from Russia, should the US site not comply with the new legislation on personal data storage. This legislation, which came into force in September 2015, requires to store Russian citizens’ personal data only in databases located on Russia territory (see white paper by EWDN and EY). Many …

Russia urges LinkedIn to comply with personal data legislation Read More

Mail.ru Group launches social network and online games in Asia

September 28, 2016

Russia’s second most popular social network, Odnoklassniki.ru (Russian for “Classmates”), owned by Mail.Ru Group, has expanded to China, Iran, Iraq and Macao, Izvestia reported last week. On August 31, the network’s new Android app was launched under the OK.RU brand in these countries, the Russian newspaper learned from unnamed sources close to the company. When …

Mail.ru Group launches social network and online games in Asia Read More

Russian university joins Facebook’s artificial intelligence project

April 14, 2017

In an exclusive with Russia Beyond The Headlines, Yann LeCun, the Director of AI Research at Facebook, said that the Neural Nets and Deep Learning Lab at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT, also known as PhysTech), together with 14 research centers from around the world, will join forces in a global research program launched by the Facebook Artificial Intelligence Partnership …

Russian university joins Facebook’s artificial intelligence project Read More

New platform facilitates advertising campaigns in Russian social media

August 19, 2016

Since its launch last year with several millions of US dollars in funding, Ordynets [Russian for ‘member of the Golden Horde’] is emerging as a leading ad network on the Russian social media scene. The network claims to have acquired more than 200 significant communities, which gather some 150 million subscribers. In addition, Ordynets works with more than 5,300 …

New platform facilitates advertising campaigns in Russian social media Read More

Why Russian police targets people on Vkontakte rather than on Facebook

July 16, 2016

According to the human rights group “Sova,” which monitors the enforcement of anti-extremism legislation in Russia, 119 people were convicted last year of criminal activity for posting and reposting content on Vkontakte, Russia’s leading social network. For comparison: in 2015, police went after only three users of Odnoklassniki (another Russian social network) and just a …

Why Russian police targets people on Vkontakte rather than on Facebook Read More

The end of privacy: A hard look at FindFace

July 19, 2016

The FindFace mobile app, which makes it possible to find a random person’s social-media page on Vkontakte after taking a photo of them in the street, has made news headlines for its use in experimental art projects and bullying women who appear in pornography. Daniil Turovsky, special correspondent for independent online publication Meduza, sat down with the authors …

The end of privacy: A hard look at FindFace Read More

Jailed for a repost: The definition of extremism in Russia gets ever looser

June 11, 2016

Russia has seen a dramatic rise in criminal prosecutions on charges of “Internet extremism” over the last few months. Yet most of these cases concern not the creation of extremist content but retweeting, liking or reposting it. Russia Beyond The Headlines, a publication owned by government newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta and a syndication partner of East-West …

Jailed for a repost: The definition of extremism in Russia gets ever looser Read More

Yandex and Facebook in talks to share user data and combine advertising inventories

June 13, 2016

Facebook has entered into negotiations with Yandex, the Russian search giant, over a potential partnership deal, Russian business daily Vedomosti newspaper reported Monday, citing unnamed sources close to both companies. The companies are discussing exchanging user data and possible joint promotions, Vedomosti reported. One of the newspaper’s sources, allegedly close to Facebook, said that negotiations are still in the …

Yandex and Facebook in talks to share user data and combine advertising inventories Read More

Russia to launch Buddhist messenger service for 500 million users

June 2, 2016

A new messenger service that seeks to unite 500 million Buddhists all around the world will be launched in Kalmykia, a Russian region with a large Buddhist population, the NSN news agency reported on May 26. Approximately $1 million will be invested in the project. The main investor and creator of the project is the former President of …

Russia to launch Buddhist messenger service for 500 million users Read More

Criminal case launched into Russian pro-suicide social media group

May 22, 2016

A group on Vkontakte, Russia’s leading social network, is being accused of encouraging teen suicide. A criminal case against the owners of the group has been launched in St. Petersburg, a statement published by the Russian Investigative Committee said Friday. If found guilty of promoting suicide, those involved may face up to five years imprisonment. …

Criminal case launched into Russian pro-suicide social media group Read More

Scroll to Top

This site is under maintenance. Sorry for the inconvenience.

This site is under maintenance. Sorry for the inconvenience.