www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/29/world/europe/russia-ukraine-war-censorship.html
Think repression only happens to others. Social Media bots don’t see humor in anti war sentiment. Neighbors reporting and recording neighbors, can land an innocent person in jail. Once jailed, work becomes scarce. If you’re lucky, you’ll leave Russia. The alternative is no work.
Preserve our Democracy. Totalitarianism is not a state to be envied. Not if you prefer “free speech”. Think about it and #DumpTrump and Trump wanna bee’s.
For the moment, lawyers say, the volume of prosecutions is held in check by the large amount of paperwork that every case requires; as a result, many instances of antiwar speech still go unpunished. But experts fear that as prosecutions become ever more routine and as the authorities focus on policing online speech, they could develop automated ways to launch investigations and to file cases.
“There certainly is that fear, given the reports that instruments for automatization are being developed,” Polina Kurakina, an OVD-Info lawyer, said.
Russia’s Pacific Coast region of Primorye, for example, launched an anonymous Telegram service last month allowing people to inform on anyone who, among other things, “promotes evil.” And a leak last year from Russia’s internet regulator showed it was developing automated systems to scan social media and news websites for politically sensitive content.
In many ways, though, the Kremlin’s campaign of repression has already achieved the desired result. Some of those prosecuted have fled the country, while others have squelched any impulse to protest the war.
Mr. Kolesnikov, the political scholar, who is based in Moscow, sees the law as an indicator of Russia’s descent into an even more controlling, totalitarian system, with anyone anywhere speaking against the Kremlin becoming vulnerable to prosecution.