• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy

Towleroad Gay News

Gay Blog Towleroad: More than gay news | gay men

  • Travel
  • Sports
  • Law/Justice
  • Celebrities
  • Film/TV/Stream
  • Republicans
  • Madonna
  • Books
  • Men
  • Trans Rights
  • Tech/Science
  • Royals
  • Monkeypox

Russia’s Navalny scolds Google and Meta for helping Putin

Towleroad June 9, 2022 Leave a Comment

Published by
Reuters
584633 origin 1

LONDON (Reuters) – Jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny scolded Google and Meta Platforms Inc on Thursday for shutting down advertising, a step he said had undermined the opposition and thus was a gift to President Vladimir Putin.

Navalny, by far Russia’s most prominent opposition leader, casts Putin’s Russia as a dystopian state run by thieves and criminals where wrong is cast as right and judges are in fact representatives of a doomed lawless country.

In a written address to the Copenhagen Democracy Summit, Navalny, who is currently in a Russian jail, said technology was being used by the state to arrest dissidents but that it also gave an opportunity to get to the truth.

“The Internet gives us the ability to circumvent censorship,” Navalny said in the address, a copy of which was posted on his official blog.

“Yet, at the same time, Google and Meta, by shutting down their advertising in Russia, have deprived the opposition of the opportunity to conduct anti-war campaigns, giving a grandiose gift to Putin.”

Neither Google nor Meta immediately responded to a request for comment on Navalny’s remarks. Both companies paused advertising targetting users in Russia in March, just days after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Navalny earned admiration from the disparate Russian opposition for voluntarily returning to Russia in 2021 from Germany, where he had undergone treatment for what Western laboratory tests showed was an attempt to poison him with a nerve agent in Siberia.

The Kremlin has repeatedly dismissed Navalny’s claims about Putin, who it says has won numerous elections in Russia since 2000 and remains by far the country’s most popular politician. It has dismissed Navalny’s assertion that Russia poisoned him.

Navalny, a former lawyer who rose to prominence more than a decade ago by lampooning Putin’s elite and voicing allegations of corruption on a vast scale, said the titans of Silicon Valley had a lot of questions to answer.

They would have to decide, he said, whether or not they were really “neutral platforms” and whether or not users in democracies should operate under the same rules as those in repressive societies.

“How should the internet treat government directives, given that Norway and Uganda seem to have slightly different ideas about the role of the internet and democracy?” he asked.

“We love technology. We love social networks. We want to live in a free informational society. So let’s figure out how to keep the bad guys from using the information society to drive their nations and all of us into the dark ages.”

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Topics: A News, Aaon, Society, World More Posts About: Alexei Navalny, Copenhagen Democracy Summit, Meta Platforms, Reuters, Vladimir Putin

Related Posts
  • In Switzerland, first same-sex couples say “I do”
  • Analysis-After abortion, conservative U.S. justices take aim at other precedents
  • Alabama cites Supreme Court abortion decision in transgender youth case
  • Kenny Goss: I didn’t want to be Mrs George Michael

    Kenny Goss: I didn’t want to be Mrs George Michael

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Kenny Goss didn’t want to be “Mrs George Michael”. The 63-year-old businessman had a 13-year relationship with the pop icon – who died on Christmas Day in 2016, aged 53 – …Read More »
  • Adele feels ‘mortified’ over Las Vegas residency

    Adele feels ‘mortified’ over Las Vegas residency

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Adele finds the thought of letting down her fans to be “mortifying”. The 34-year-old singer feels she failed her fans by postponing her residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas earlier …Read More »
  • Biden predicts states will try to arrest women who travel for abortions

    Biden predicts states will try to arrest women who travel for abortions

    Published by Reuters By Jeff Mason and Rami Ayyub WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden predicted on Friday that some U.S. states will try to arrest women for crossing state lines to get abortions after the Supreme …Read More »
  • Elliot Page signs up for his ‘first ever dating app’

    Elliot Page signs up for his ‘first ever dating app’

    Published by BANG Showbiz English Elliot Page is on his “first dating app ever”. The 35-year-old actor – who separated from Emma Portner in January 2021 after three years of marriage – revealed that he is …Read More »
Previous Post: « New wave of Black, gay narratives taking bigger role on NYC theater scene
Next Post: NBC Under Siege After Savannah Guthrie Failed To Disclose Her Husband Secretly Worked For Johnny Depp »

Primary Sidebar

News

  • Lindsay Lohan marries financier Bader Shammas

    Lindsay Lohan marries financier Bader Shammas

  • Horseshoe crabs: ‘Living fossils’ vital for vaccine safety

    Horseshoe crabs: ‘Living fossils’ vital for vaccine safety

  • ‘A Disgusting Sight In Any Case’: Vladimir Putin Fires Back After G7 Leaders Joke About His Infamous Horse-Riding Picture

    ‘A Disgusting Sight In Any Case’: Vladimir Putin Fires Back After G7 Leaders Joke About His Infamous Horse-Riding Picture

RSS Partner Links

  • Rebel Wilson confesses she’s “lost all control” while on holiday at an all-inclusive resort
  • Saturday Round-Up: Danny Roberts; Andrew Ahn; Tessa Thompson; Billy Porter; Elliot Page; Dan Jervis & more!
  • Saturday 'Stache
  • Kathryn Gallagher Releases New Song 'Read It In The Paper' About Finding Out an Ex Was Engaged
  • Amanda Bynes Ditches Bright Yellow Hair for a Lighter Blonde Look (New Photos)
  • DM: The Palace buried the bullying inquiry to protect the ‘defensive’ Sussexes
  • “Brie Larson’s social media presence is a bit lonely and offbeat” links

Most Recent

  • What charges might Trump face for trying to overturn 2020 election?

    What charges might Trump face for trying to overturn 2020 election?

  • Kenny Goss: I didn’t want to be Mrs George Michael

    Kenny Goss: I didn’t want to be Mrs George Michael

  • Adele feels ‘mortified’ over Las Vegas residency

    Adele feels ‘mortified’ over Las Vegas residency

  • Biden predicts states will try to arrest women who travel for abortions

    Biden predicts states will try to arrest women who travel for abortions

  • Elliot Page signs up for his ‘first ever dating app’

    Elliot Page signs up for his ‘first ever dating app’

  • Mac Engel Column: WNBA player speaks honest truth about Brittney Griner: ‘If this was Shaq, he’d be home’

    Mac Engel Column: WNBA player speaks honest truth about Brittney Griner: ‘If this was Shaq, he’d be home’

  • Gay Man Tells Co-Worker to Stop Talking to Him About Her Pregnancy: ‘I Don’t Care’

    Gay Man Tells Co-Worker to Stop Talking to Him About Her Pregnancy: ‘I Don’t Care’

  • Biles, Denzel Washington, Rapinoe among winners of top US honor

    Biles, Denzel Washington, Rapinoe among winners of top US honor

Most Commented

Social

Twitter @tlrd | Facebook | Instagram @tlrd
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • About Towleroad
  • Towleroad on Social Media
  • Privacy Policy
[towleroadmr] [towleroadtn]

Footer

Copyright © 2022 · Log in