On attacking Ukraine a week ago, the Russia has isolated itself both diplomatically and… digitally. If, for the time being, a few international platforms can still connect the Russian population to the rest of the world, the Kremlin’s restrictions are increasingly strong, particularly in the area of online freedoms. What information do the Russians still have access to today? ” Facebook, Twitter, YouTube will they be the next to be blocked, following foreign media and independent media?, worries Olga Bronnikova, research professor at the University of Grenoble Alpes, sociologist and specialist in Russia. Everyone is preparing for the worst. »
Fears that seem justified since, on the night of Thursday to Friday, the Facebook site was difficult to access from the country, before being blocked that night. Last week, the regulator Russian Communications had announced “to limit access” at Facebookwhich he accused of censorship.
Our file on the war in Ukraine
These last years, Vladimir Poutine has set up a legislative arsenal to force its population to receive only validated information. “The grip of Russian power on the Internet dates back to 2012. This is the moment when we begin to feel a restriction of freedoms while at its birth in Russia, the Internet was very free and decentralized, unlike China, for example , where, from the start, the Web is very controlled”, recounts Olga Bronnikova. “In 2011-2012, strong post-electoral mobilizations take place. The social networks make it possible to film frauds and falsifications, then to denounce them, by posting them in particular on YouTube. To these social movements little appreciated by Russian power are added the Arab Spring and the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Jordan or even in Yemen and Syria, largely made possible by the advent of social networks. .
For the Kremlin – which also observes “the so-called “color” revolutions, i.e. revolutions that took place in other countries of the post-Soviet space following electoral deadlines, in Ukraine or Georgia, for example”, lists Olga Bronnikova – it’s time to put things in order.
The implementation of specific laws
“From 2012, there is a new law almost every month, every year, which muzzles the media and limits expression on the Internet. The first is that known as “foreign agents”. At the beginning, it only applies to legal persons, Russian NGOs and associations who carry out socio-political activities. But the law gradually hardens: the media are in turn concerned a few years later and the law ends up being applicable to natural persons. “A person concerned must provide reports constantly, and justify by invoice all his races, even a pack of diapers for his baby. »
Wearing the “foreign agent” label does not prevent the media or associations from working, but this mention in all the content they publish is mandatory and can harm them. “Being labeled a ‘foreign agent’ is a very strong notion in Russia: being considered an enemy of the people, financed from outside, who aims to destabilize and destroy public and political order, it is particularly stigmatizing,” explains the Russia specialist.
forbidden words
Followed by this first law restricting digital freedoms, that on “undesirable” organizations, which receive funds from abroad, then another specifically targeting online media, obliging them to report information of a certain way, to ban certain words. Thus, “the media cannot only talk regarding the Islamic State. They must specify that it is a terrorist organization prohibited in Russia. And there, since the invasion in Ukraine, they are forbidden to use the word “war”, they must speak of a military operation”. This is also one of the reasons for the banning of several foreign media in Russia for a few days, ”says Olga Bronnikova.
The culmination of this legislative frenzy, the text “which brings together the initiatives taken upstream” arrives in 2019: it is the so-called law of “Internet sovereignty”. It has enabled Internet service providers in Russia, both mobile and non-mobile, to introduce new technologies, known as DPI, which allow the authorities to quite easily slow down all services on the Internet, but also to block the Internet at need. “Before 2019, it was very difficult for the Russian authorities to have such a stranglehold on the network because it was very ramified with more than 3,000 Internet service providers, when France, for example, has barely ten. But the big ISPs, controlled by the state, have bought up quite a few small ones. Today, it is estimated that the mobile Internet is almost 100% covered by new DPI technologies, while for the non-mobile Internet, we are at around two thirds of coverage”. The slowdowns observed on Facebook and Twitter in recent days are therefore the consequence of this law of “Internet sovereignty”.
Is the propaganda of power totally effective?
By methodically building, for ten years, a legislative arsenal that limits digital freedoms in substance and form, Moscow has tried to prepare, not to say condition or format, the population to think through the prism of power. Channels, radios and newspapers are now totally controlled by the Kremlin, but what regarding social networks? Because if Russian social networks such as VK (formerly Vkontacte) and Yandex are under the control of the Kremlin, Facebook, YouTube and the others do they have the means to resist? “The Russian company knows how to use a VPN to access independent information. The associations for the defense of digital freedoms, before being completely muzzled, communicated widely on this subject. The Russians may have gotten used to the situation year following year, but they have not forgotten, ”assures Olga Bronnikova.
The sociologist recalls that the dismantling of the ” Nalvany network was particularly demoralizing for activists and for Russian youth. “At the time, everyone thought the opponent was untouchable, no one thought he would first be poisoned and then imprisoned. It was a real surprise”. But she retains real optimism regarding the resilience of the Russian population: “We understood that the state can strike hard. Today, only a minority of Russians engages once morest this war with a big fear of reprisals. The majority of them do not protest and try to ignore it. In 2014, the population had largely embraced the war in Crimea. There, there is no patriotic impulse”. A glimmer of hope from within?
