Moscow – Russian government’s Internet censors have threatened to hit Apple and Google with fines if they do not remove an application developed by the jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalnyof the team. The application urges Russian voters to defeat the president Vladimir Putinthe ruling party in the next parliamentary elections.
Navalny’s move was formally tagged as “extremist” organization by Russian authorities over the summer, placing him and his supporters in the same ranks as al-Qaeda and the Taliban in the eyes of Russian law. In February, Navalny was immediately arrested on his return to Russia from Germany, where he spent months recovering from a poisoning attack that he and U.S. officials accuse Putin himself of ordering.
His imprisonment sparked massive protests across the country, leading to thousands of arrests.
Censor Roskomnadzor told Apple and Google that the “Smart Voting” app should be removed from their app stores, citing that the Navalny group behind it had been designated an extremist organization. , the Interfax news agency reported on Thursday.
If companies do not comply, Moscow “may also consider it [it] as interference by American companies in Russian elections, ”the article said.
As of Friday, neither platform had deleted the app.
Orientation of dissent through a high-tech fine
The lawsuits are just the latest test for Western technology giants, as Moscow authorities continue to demand compliance with controversial legislation that has given the Kremlin increasing control over the Internet and everything inside. from the borders of Russia.
Fines against Western Internet companies have already accumulated, as many refuse to comply with the new laws, including the requirement that all data from Russian users be stored nationally on Russian servers and that service providers share decryption keys if requested by Russia’s special services, so that they can examine the data of encrypted users.
Facebook has already been hit with about a $ 600,000 fine, followed by Google, which owes about $ 383,000 so far, according to a report on Internet freedoms in Russia by defense group Reporters Without Borders.
The report says that in the run-up to the September parliamentary elections, most of which opposition candidates have already been disqualified, Russian authorities have significantly increased pressure on international online platforms.
Reporters Without Borders notes that the bulk of sanctions against Internet services for “involving minors in protest activities” were aimed at Western technology platforms, while other services, such as the Chinese TikTok and Russia’s Facebook version, VKontakte , were affected to a much lesser extent.
Roskomsvoboda, a group defending Internet freedom, said that over the past two years Russian authorities have increasingly used Internet restrictions as “a tool to combat opposition information or socio-political sources” and a means of surveillance.
In July, Roskomnadzor banned more than 40 websites and services associated with the Navalny movement. In March, the Internet censor issued a warning to popular virtual private network (VPN) services, which allow Russians to access banned content, filter their traffic, or risk being banned in the country.
An overwhelming majority of services, including NordVPN, ProtonVPN, TorGuard and others, have been denied, alleging privacy issues.
On Friday, as President Putin addressed a business panel in Vladivostok, with many foreign investors present via a video link, the censor announced that six popular VPNs in Russia would be blocked.
Mikhail Svetlov / Getty
Some services are equipped to circumvent the bans, but the effectiveness of the restrictions was not immediately known.
Russian Internet regulators tried for two years, without much luck, to block the popular messaging application Telegram, but ended up restoring full access. Authorities have also threatened in the past to ban Twitter, but appear to have opted to curb traffic to the site, in what many see as a warning to platforms with far more users in the country, such as Google and Facebook.
Putin has no “time” for technology
Putin has made “digitalization” one of the priorities of Russia’s economy. But the former spy also likes that the Internet does not have a presence on social media or even own a cell phone.
During a visit to an elementary school in the city of Vladivostok on Wednesday, a boy asked Putin to subscribe to his YouTube channel on ecology, leaving the president confused.
“What do I have to sign?” Putin asked. “I didn’t understand: what should I sign?”
His response provoked laughter from the children in the audience and the 10-year-old explained that YouTube is a social networking platform. (You can watch the exchange here on YouTube.)
“Oh, that’s fine,” Putin replied. “On your channel? Okay, I’ll think about it.”
The Kremlin commented on the exchange and explained that President Putin “does not have time to post on social media” and does not want anyone to do it for him.