Google has been blocked in the Donbass by pro-Kremlin separatists who claim that the tech giant is encouraging “violence against Russians.”
Denis Pushilin, the rebel leader, claimed that because of the search engine’s apparent bias towards Ukraine, Putin’s forces were in danger of losing their lives.
A day after the neighbouring Lugansk People’s Republic blocked the US site, the leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic made the announcement on Telegram.
He declared: “Today, the West and Ukraine are putting the Republic under unprecedented strain and posing dangers to both its physical and psychological security.
The aim of this pressure is to scare and demoralise the people of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
“We are confident that they will fail because not only can the Russian spirit not be broken, but it is also impossible to remain passive in such a situation.”
In 2014, the separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk broke away from Kiev, sparking an eight-year conflict with the Ukrainian military.
The pro-Russian statelets have tight control over the flow of information.
The inhumane propaganda of the West and Ukraine has long transcended all boundaries, said Pushilin. Russians are actually being persecuted, and lies and misinformation are being spread about them.
The Google search engine, which openly promotes terrorism and violence against all Russians and particularly the people of Donbass on the orders of its curators from the US government, is at the forefront of information technology in this regard.
It wasn’t initiated yesterday. I believe that this situation shouldn’t be tolerated any longer. On the DPR’s territory, we have made the decision to block Google.
In every society where there are criminals, they isolate themselves from the rest of society.
There won’t be any barriers to Google’s work if it abandons its criminal strategy and reverts to the norm of the law, morality, and common sense.
This summer, Russian forces took complete control of the Lugansk region of Ukraine, and they have declared their intention to grab control of the entire Donetsk region as well.
It’s not the first time Putin and his allies have repressed Western internet freedom in an effort to censor any mention of the atrocities carried out by their troops in Ukraine.
Russia’s communications watchdog announced on Wednesday that it was taking action against the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, for breaking the law in relation to the heinous invasion.
According to a statement from Roskomnadzor, search engines would be used to alert users that Wikipedia was in violation of Russian law because it continued to host “prohibited materials, including fakes about the course of the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine.”
According to Anton Gorelkin, vice chair of the information policy committee of the Russian parliament, links to Wikipedia will be accompanied by a disclaimer alerting users to possible legal violations by the Wikimedia Foundation.
The measures, according to Roskomnadzor, will be in force until Wikimedia Foundation complies fully with Russian legislation.
A Moscow court fined the Wikimedia Foundation 5 million roubles ($91,000) on June 13 for failing to remove what it called false information from Russian-language Wikipedia articles on the Ukraine conflict, including “The Russian Invasion of Ukraine,” “War Crimes during the Russian Invasion of Ukraine,” and “Massacre in Bucha.”
The Wikimedia Foundation then appealed the ruling.
Wikipedia is written and edited by volunteers in more than 300 languages and bills itself as “the second draught of history.”
Wikipedia became one of the last sources of fact-checked information on the war available to Russians after a large portion of the independent media in Russia was shut down in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.
Shortly after the Kremlin ordered tens of thousands of troops to deploy to the country on February 24, Russia unveiled comprehensive new laws on the sharing of information about the conflict in Ukraine.
The largest conflict in Europe since 1945 has been the subject of fierce debate. Russia avoids using the terms “war” or “invasion,” making it illegal to do so, and instead refers to the current situation as a “special military operation” to “demilitarise and denazify” Ukraine.
The framing used by Russia, according to Ukraine and the West, is a smokescreen intended to support an aggressive war in the imperial style.