La Russie ralentit la vitesse sur Twitter
L’actu
Russia moved to slow down the speed of Twitter on Wednesday after the social media company failed to remove what the country's media watchdog described as prohibited or harmful content. The move comes after Russia vowed to act against social media platforms in the wake of protests in support of opposition figure Alexey Navalny. Officials warned they would take action against social media companies that didn't filter posts about protests that the Kremlin deemed as illegal or inciting people to demonstrate.
"Starting today, Roskomnadzor has taken measures of centralized response, namely, slowing down the speed of the service. The slowdown will be implemented for 100% of mobile traffic and 50% of fixed traffic. The mechanism involves slowing down the transfer of photo and video content, without limiting transmission text messages. This way, users will be able to exchange messages without hindrance," Vadim Subbotin, deputy head of the Roskomnadzor media watchdog, told journalists, according to state news agency TASS. Lire l’article sur CNN Business.
La mainmise du Kremlin sur la liberté d’expression
La procédure
Roskomnadzor, the state body for media oversight, said the forced slowdown targets only video and image files on Twitter, rather than the tweets themselves. Internet service providers reported an overall slowdown in access to Twitter.
The slowdown is to be facilitated by Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology, which can be used to filter, reroute and block internet traffic. This is not the first time authorities have tried to block social media platforms for failure to comply with oppressive laws. However, this is the first reported attempt to restrict access to a large social media platform facilitated by this technology.
Russia’s 2019 Sovereign Internet Law obliged internet service providers to install DPI technology in networks, enabling the state to exercise direct control over traffic. Internet experts have criticized DPI technology for facilitating censorship and disruptions with no oversight. Lire l’article entier sur le site de Human Rights Watch.
La Russie critique le manque de modération des réseaux sociaux
Le point de départ
La Russie a adopté ces derniers mois un train de mesures pour contrer l'influence des réseaux sociaux étrangers. La chambre basse du Parlement a ainsi adopté en décembre un projet de loi imposant de lourdes amendes aux plates-formes qui ne suppriment pas les contenus interdits. L'accès aux réseaux des géants américains peut même être restreint en cas de "discrimination" des médias russes.
Le ministère des Affaires étrangères a également accusé Facebook et d'autres plates-formes de réseaux sociaux américains de n'être pas parvenu à identifier de faux messages liés à des manifestations non autorisées en faveur d'Alexeï Navalny.
En janvier, le président russe Vladimir Poutine s'est interrogé sur le poids croissant des géants américains des réseaux sociaux et a estimé qu'au regard de leur influence, ils étaient désormais en concurrence avec les Etats. Lire l’article complet dans la Tribune.
Twitter supprime 373 comptes Twitter russes, arméniens et iraniens
Le premier round
Twitter said on Tuesday (23 février 2021, NDLR) it had taken down 373 accounts which it said had ties to Russia, Armenia and Iran and had breached its platform manipulation policies. The company said it had taken down 238 accounts operating from Iran for various violations of its policies.
Twitter said 100 accounts with Russian ties were removed for amplifying narratives that undermined faith in NATO and targeted the United States and the European Union.
Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moscow planned to look into the grounds for Twitter blocking the accounts, TASS (Russian News Agency) news agency reported. Lire l’article entier sur Reuters.
