Combination of three images, from left, at Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California, October 20, 2020; Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on October 21, 2020; And an Apple store in New York August 11, 2020. When Russia invades Ukraine, officials in Moscow intensify their domestic audit campaign by pressing on some of the world's largest technology companies. Left and Center, Laura Morton / The New York Times; Well, KP Jones / The New York Times
When Russia invades Ukraine, officials in Moscow intensify their domestic audit campaign by pressing on some of the world's largest technology companies.
On February 16, Russian officials warned that Google, Meta, Apple, Twitter, Dictoc and others would have until the end of this month to comply with the new law requiring them to set up legal entities in the country. The so-called landing law makes companies and their employees more vulnerable to the demands of Russia's legal system and government auditors, legal experts and civil society groups.
When Russia invades Ukraine, officials in Moscow intensify their domestic audit campaign by pressing on some of the world's largest technology companies.
Last week, Russian officials warned that Google, Meta, Apple, Twitter, Dictoc and other companies would have until the end of this month to comply with a new law requiring them to set up legal entities in the country. The so-called landing law makes companies and their employees more vulnerable to the demands of Russia's legal system and government auditors, legal experts and civil society groups.
These actions are part of a Russian pressure campaign against foreign technology companies. Authorities are pushing companies to censor unfavorable content online, while keeping the Kremlin's pro-media filter out, taking advantage of fines, arrests and the possibility of blocking or slowing down Internet services.
Apple, TikTok and Spotify have complied with the landing law, and according to Russian Internet regulator Roskomnadzor, Google has taken steps to do so. No twitch and telegram. Facebook’s parent meta and Twitter have complied with some parts of the law, while others have not. The situation puts technology companies in a quandary between public opinion for free opinion and privacy and their work in countries with dictatorial leaders. Russia is forced to weigh in against giving up the availability of their services altogether.
Increasingly, companies are facing pressure from Ukrainian authorities and US lawmakers to reduce their involvement in Russia. Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister has asked Apple, Google, Netflix and Meta to restrict access to their services within Russia. Senator Mark Warner of the Democratic Party of Virginia, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to Meta, Reddit, Telegram and others urging Russian companies not to use their sites to sow chaos about the war.
Companies from all over the world are facing conflicting demands. Isolated censorship issues in China, perhaps the home of the world's most controlled Internet, have spread to Russia, Turkey, Belarus, Myanmar and elsewhere, with some of them trying to create a more tightly controlled web.
For Russia, censoring the Internet is not easy. While China has developed a series of filters called the Great Firewall around its Internet, Russia's Internet is more open, and American technology sites are widely used in the country. To change that, the Russian government has developed new technologies to block content, which it used last year to block access to Twitter.
Now that Russia is trying to control what information is being spread about the war in Ukraine, pressure on technology companies is expected to increase. The Russians used Facebook, Instagram and other foreign social media to criticize the conflict, raising concerns about repression on the sites.
On Friday, Roskomnadzor said it was restricting Facebook access by reducing traffic. The regulator said the social network had interfered with many Kremlin pro-government media.
Nick Clegg, Meta's top policy executive, said the company had rejected Russian demands to stop independent verification of posts by four state-owned media outlets. The company said Russian state media were banned from publishing ads on social networks.
Twitter, which has said it will suspend advertising in Ukraine and Russia, said on Saturday that its service to some in Russia would also be restricted. On Sunday, Roskomnadzor demanded that Google remove restrictions on some Russian media outlets after restricting its ability to make money by advertising on YouTube.
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