It’s Only Censorship When We Say So

I see Russia has joined the techno-autocrats at Google, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram in the fight against misinformation. After effectively shutting down Russia’s independent media last week when they began reporting mis-misinformation, Putin has now shut down most of the Internet for the same infraction.

The interior forces came from Roskomnadzor, Russia’s censor, which Friday announced plans to block Facebook, which already had been throttled for several days. In a post on the popular Telegram social media site, the agency accused Facebook of blocking the free flow of information to Russia after it took steps to fact-check state media and restrict it in Europe. Roskomnadzor said it sent similar letters to TikTok and Google, the owner of YouTube. Twitter has also confirmed that its service is being restricted for some people in Russia. – WaPo

Autocrats of all breeds like to do that but I would have expected Putin to get a little more support from his Big Social Networks brothers-in-arm. Except I suspect this might impact their bottom line and that my friend, is where censorship gets off the bus.

My favorite part of the Russian censorship story:

The BBC, CNN and other international news organizations said they were suspending reporting in Russia because of a new law that could result in 15 years of prison for publishing what government officials deem false news on the war.

They’ll not be putting their butts on the line for truth. But still: imagine being punished for simply reporting the truth. Unheard of!

Off-topic but on-Caturday:

There is no Norwegian forest cat in this fur coat. Nor is there a Russian Siberian forest cat.

In fact it might even be a dog under there.