Messaging service Parler, popular among the far right and ex-US President Donald Trump’s more radical supporters, was removed by the Apple store and blocked by Amazon earlier this month. But it bounced back this week with a Russian accent. Parler’s return is at least partially due to the work of Russian IT firm DDoS-Guard, whose …
How a Russian IT company saved US far-right app Parler Read More
Just days after Alexey Navalny’s arrest in the Moscow airport and the publication of his killer video on “Putin’s palace,” a digital rebellion is underway in Russia, involving millions of teenagers and elder users of social media. As of Jan. 21, the investigative video on the luxury mansion had broken all records, garnering more than 50 million …
Twitter’s decision to permanently suspend Donald Trump’s account has met with a real furor on the part of Russia’s digitally-connected commentariat. For several days now, bloggers, journalists, politicians and just the concerned members of the Russian public have (for the most part) condemned the ban with the raging passion of those truly in the know. …
For Russians, Trump’s Twitter ban gets lost in translation Read More
On December 25, the Federation Council, Russia’s upper house of parliament, approved a bill against “censorship” of Russian media and other illegitimate restrictions to content distribution on the Internet. The new law targets Internet resources, including foreign ones, that restrict “distribution of socially significant information in the territory of the Russian Federation on the grounds of nationality, language, origin, property and …
This material is a shortened version of an article which appeared in The Moscow Times Whether you live in Moscow, Berlin, New York, Tokyo, Delhi or Buenos Aires, chances are you still think TikTok is some kind of marginal Chinese social network where teenagers from all over the world dance and sing. Not anymore, it …
Pro-Kremlin trolls invade TikTok as Chinese network gains massive popularity in Russia Read More
Facebook has removed three networks originating in Russia and France for violating its policy against foreign interference, the company reported on Tuesday, December 15. According to Facebook, these networks were responsible for carrying out “coordinated inauthentic behavior” targeting multiple countries in North Africa and the Middle East. While Facebook has removed Russian “troll factories” for …
The latest viral sensation taking the Russian internet by storm is… a farm. A fictional, futuristic “cyberpunk” farm, to be more specific. “Russian Cyberpunk Farm,” which imagines life at a provincial Russian village in a future dominated by tech corporations, has racked up more than 3.5 million views since it was published on YouTube last …
Viral ‘cyberpunk farm’ satirizes Russia’s agritech future Read More
The companies Unilever Russia, Mars, Inc., Magnit, and Yandex Lavka have all pulled their advertisements from the YouTube show ‘Comment Out’ after a guest on the show was asked to make offensive social media posts about the ongoing protests in Belarus and Khabarovsk. The episode in question came out on August 31. It featured Russian singer Lolita …
TikTok’s latest viral trend has roots in an unlikely source: a 10-year-old Russian cereal commercial. The video shows a computer-animated llama dancing to a haunting, high-pitched vocal in the desert while bathed in apocalyptic red light. The childish song is a remix of the jingle from a 2010 commercial for Russian cereal Miel Pops, or Honey Pops. …
TikTok’s latest viral trend is a Russian cereal jingle from 2010 Read More
Twitter has suspended 1,152 accounts linked to the Russian authorities for carrying out “information operations.” According to he company, the blocked Russian accounts are associated with the media website “Current Policy” (“Aktualnaya Politika”), which is engaged in state-backed political propaganda within Russia. The network of accounts was suspended for “cross-posting and amplifying content in an …
Twitter suspends more than 1,000 Russian accounts for state-backed propaganda Read More
YouTube moderators have deleted a Russian campaign video that used homophobic humor to urge participation in an upcoming plebiscite on constitutional amendments. In the video, two gay men adopt a young boy, to the horror of orphanage employees. The campaign ad depicts a hypothetical Russia where voters have rejected new constitutional amendments, including a proposed change …
Russian photo colorist Olga Shirnina has stunning new work ready to post for her more than 45,000 followers on social media but is unwilling to share three new images on Facebook and Instagram because, as she told RFE/RL, “I would be [suspended] again for sure.” Shirnina (above), who works under the name Klimbim, is a professional German-Russian …
Facebook suspends Russian colorist for “dangerous” WW2 images Read More
