



So as it is cordoned off into its own digital ecosystem, the fallout may be severe.Īlso Read | Russian energy dominance over Europe and what it means amidst the Ukraine crisis Unlike China, where domestic internet companies have grown into behemoths over more than a decade, Russia does not have a similarly vibrant domestic internet or tech industry. “How this may change in the future, especially if YouTube will be blocked, I don’t know.” “For the moment I do plan to work in Russia,” he said. On March 4, Russia had blocked access to Twitter, Facebook and various news portals. But he said it was unclear how long he could keep going. Pivovarov, 47, who is based in Moscow, said he planned to keep broadcasting on YouTube despite the risks. YouTube could be one of the next targets to be blocked by Russian regulators, experts predicted. YouTube, which is owned by Google, last week blocked all Russian accounts from making money from their videos and barred Russian state television outlets from being shown across Europe. Now the work risks putting Pivovarov in jail - or out of business. “I never thought before I came to YouTube that it was possible.” “I was completely sure that this part of my life was over forever, and I would never work as a journalist again,” he said in a recent interview.
One piece world seeker censorship install#
Russia then began a campaign to install new censorship equipment to block or slow down access to websites like Twitter.īut the final break since the invasion began has jarred Russians who used the internet to stay connected with the wider world, get independent information and build their careers.Īlexei Pivovarov, who quit his job on state television almost a decade ago in the face of growing censorship, said he experienced a “second birth” when he started producing news shows and distributing them on YouTube.Īlmost 3 million people subscribe to his YouTube channel, where he and a team publish investigations and news reports that are unavailable on state media.Īlo Read | Russia-Ukraine crisis Highlights: Ukrainians flee embattled cities US, UK step up pressure on Russia with oil imports ban
One piece world seeker censorship cracked#
Putin first cracked down on government critics and independent news outlets online. Internet censorship efforts in Russia have grown for the past decade, said Tanya Lokot, an associate professor at Dublin City University who specialises in digital rights in Eastern Europe. “This is going to feel like a return to the 1980s for people who lived in that era because suddenly information is back in the hands of the state,” said Alp Toker, director of NetBlocks, a London organisation that tracks internet censorship. Under a censorship law passed last week, journalists, website operators and others risk 15 years in prison for publishing “misinformation” about the war on Ukraine. It allows him to clamp down further on dissent and information that does not follow the government line. While Russia is paying a stiff economic cost for being cut off, the digital isolationism also serves Putin’s interests. Also Read | Meta pauses advertisements in Russia after government crackdown
