Moscow | Jailed dissident Alexei Navalny on Thursday called on Western tech giants to open a “media front” with advertising campaigns aimed at reaching Russians.
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“I urge the President of the United States, Boris Johnson, and the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and Mark Zuckerberg (…) to urgently find a solution to crush Putin’s propaganda by using publicity opportunities on social media,” he wrote on Twitter.
We need advertising. Lots of advertising.”
He criticized recent opinion polls that showed support for President Putin had increased since the beginning of the offensive in Ukraine, and asserted that it was a “lie”.
“The really crazy mix of propaganda… on all channels 24/7, shutdowns, blocking of independent media and websites is slowly doing its job,” he said. He writes, “The truth is that the majority of Russian citizens have a distorted idea of what is happening in Ukraine.”
Twitter, Instagram and most independent media have been blocked by the Russian authorities since the attack on Ukraine.
The Russian authorities have sharply increased their pressure and legal arsenal to control communications on the conflict in Russia, threatening to impose sentences of up to 15 years in prison for spreading “false information” about the Russian military.
Telecoms Constable Roskomnadzor recently banned Google from advertising its services in Russia after accusing YouTube of spreading “false information” about Russian forces.
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