Russia’s leading media conglomerate has launched a domestic rival to the hugely popular video-sharing app TikTok as Russia’s campaign to reduce the influence of foreign websites and technology advances. Gazprom Media, a subsidiary of state-owned gas giant Gazprom, launched the service, named ‘Yappy,’ on Monday. It is currently available to download from both the Apple …
On Tuesday Mail.ru Group, the LSE-listed Russian Internet major, announced its rebranding to ‘VK,’ uniting most of its online activities around the abbreviated name of its social media flagship Vkontakte. “While market analysts and professionals know us as Mail.ru Group, the connection between our projects was not always obvious to users,” explains the group, and …
Russia could impose record fines on Facebook and Google (held responsible for YouTube) for not removing prohibited content. Since these companies are accused of repeated violations, fines could be in the range of 1/20 to 1/10 of the yearly revenues they generate in Russia. Thus Facebook, which makes around 10 billion rubles per year in the …
Facebook and Google exposed to record fines for not removing unlawful content in Russia Read More
This past Wednesday Roskomnadzor, Russia’s telecom and Internet regulator, announced the launch of a registry of major domestic and foreign social networks. The regulator cites amendments to the Russian legislation on information and information technologies which came in force on Feb. 1, 2021. Establishing the “self-control” of social networks, these new rules mandate them to …
Russia mandates social networks to “self-control” unlawful content Read More
On Sept. 17 Apple and Google disabled Russian users’ access to the pro-opposition ‘Smart Voting’ app in their online stores. Just hours later Telegram, the international instant messenger whose creator Pavel Durov touts its full independence, dealt a new blow to ‘Smart Voting’ by suspending — in a selective and controversial way — bots associated with …
How Russia forced Apple and Google to block anti-Kremlin app on parliamentary election day Read More
Russia said Thursday that Google and Apple’s refusal to remove jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s app ahead of elections could be seen as interference in the country’s domestic affairs. The country is holding parliamentary elections later this month, with nearly all vocal Kremlin critics including Navalny’s allies barred from running. Roskomnadzor, the Internet and telecom …
Russia accuses Apple, Google of election interference Read More
In its July 2021 “Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report,” Facebook announced that it banned 63 Facebook accounts and 243 Instagram accounts for spreading disinformation about Western coronavirus vaccines. The flagged content included various memes about the supposed dangers of COVID-19 shots, especially AstraZeneca, and numerous comments posted elsewhere in English, Hindi, Spanish, and Portuguese. The disinformation …
Facebook report: Russian groups spread disinformation about Western covid vaccines Read More
Most LinkedIn spam is just annoying. But new research from Google suggests some of it was outright dangerous: Russian government hackers targeted European government officials with LinkedIn messages that contained malicious links designed to exploit unknown vulnerabilities in Windows and iOS, according to Google’s report. Google’s Threat Analysis Group published new research on Wednesday, detailing …
Annoying LinkedIn networkers are actually Russian hackers spreading zero-days, Google says Read More
At the request of Russia’s censorship agency, Roskomnadzor, Moscow’s Tagansky District Court has banned the Telegram bot “Eye of God” for alleged illegal activity that violates privacy rights. According to Roskomnadzor’s claim, the Telegram bot, which searches online databases for people’s personal information, violates privacy rights “by accessing an indefinite circle of persons’ personal data …
Moscow court bans Telegram bot ‘Eye of God’ over privacy violations Read More
Last month, a handful of journalists and bloggers in France and Germany tweeted screenshots of emails from managers at some kind of marketing agency asking them to share information about higher mortality rates in patients immunized with Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine relative to other vaccines. As reporters learned that the agency is based in Moscow, French …
Facebook said Russia and Iran are the internet’s leading spreaders of disinformation aimed at manipulating public opinion in a report published Thursday. Facebook researchers linked most of Russian operations to the Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg-based troll factory that was also blamed by the U.S. intelligence community for 2016 election interference. “Facebook’s broader security strategy against …
Facebook accuses Russia of spreading disinformation Read More
Starting from this summer, VK (Vkontakte) users will be gather up to 2,048 people in group calls — “an unprecedented number for a social network,” according to Mail.ru Group, the owner of VK. The new feature was announced on May 17 by VK Technical Director Alexander Tobol at the Highload++ conference. “For most services, the number …
VK announces group calls for more than 2,000 simultaneous participants Read More
