Earlier this month, while the Kremlin called on several Big Tech companies to crack down on political dissidents across the country election in Russia, their answer was clear: no. However, just two weeks later, Apple and Google removed from their program maintains the Smart Voting program, opposition leader Alexey Navalny is his party’s first voting tool against the Vladimir Putin regime. Then Telegram and YouTube with Google too banned the opportunity to support critics that Navalny was sharing on the platform. Putin was happiness.
The sudden deviation from the US platforms did not only hurt the protesters to connect with the Russian people. It also highlighted the dangers of the Kremlin’s new policy: Encourage foreign technology companies to put them down, so that they can be pressured and intimidated to comply with the Kremlin’s demands. In all the discussions that politicians and scholars have about online experiments, this section is a powerful reminder that the power of the past can be a powerful force for good online government.
Putin’s government has been relying on terrorists to oppress, beat up dissidents and disruption try to kill Navalny for that in prison him since he was recovering from poisoning. It is therefore not surprising that Navaly was arrested stop is highlighting international protests for the Kremlin to try to address the potential threat to the election, in addition to powerful US technology companies.
One of Putin’s main goals was Navalny’s Smart Voting, which has been successful in the past few years by disseminating voting ideas to voters from Putin’s ruling party, United Russia. That is why the Russian internet developer is useless cover that American technical platforms monitor Smart Voting. The Russian network operators have run out block Russia’s full acquisition of Google Documents, as the Navalny group drafted a statement against the opposition in United Russia. But when Apple and Google refused to remove the antitrust program, the government switched on code to muscle.
In July, Putin signed a law requiring foreign technology companies operating in the Russian market to open offices in the country. The Kremlin may argue that this is a matter of Russian law, but it is actually creating bodies for torture. Not every platform has set up a store (Twitter remains a store), but Apple and Google have said so. That’s why if they don’t follow their wishes, the Kremlin he sends armed men sitting in Google offices in Moscow for hours. Russia’s parliament too he was called representatives from Google and Apple offices in the Navalny app section, where they have been criticized and threatened. Boma he says cited other Google employees who would criticize him if the company would not remove the app, and Apple offers the same.
And, poof, the next morning, both companies turned up and removed Smart Voting from their stores. Apple agreed obstruction Special Shipping to Russia, form is designed ensuring that by browsing the internet with Safari, no group can see the user and what they are seeing. This no doubt encouraged the Russian Federal Security Service (formerly strong) to be able to spy on civilians online. YouTube, which is widely used in Russia by critics, then removed a video in which the Navalny camp records the names of the protesters, and the Telegraph blocked access to Navalny.
The scandal illustrates the decades-long disruption of American “internet freedom” that pushed the idea that the top Western companies operating in oppressive countries lead democracy. For example, in the Arab Spring, many American scholars neglect a cover local bloggers and citizens are planning a “Twitter Revolution.” 2010 Speaking United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke of the ways in which oppressive regimes use the internet to their advantage but still echoes the prevailing notion that more Western technology in dictatorship promotes “freedom”. At some point the data shows that, the presence of these companies in Russia is what made them vulnerable to Putin’s will.