Authorities in the two pro-Russian separatist regions in eastern Ukraine have announced they have blocked the world’s largest internet search engine, Google, accusing it of “encouraging” anti-Russian violence.
Google “encourages terrorism and violence against all Russians, especially against the population of Donbass (…) We decided to block Google on the territory of Donetsk region,” separatist leader Denis Pushilin said in a statement on Friday.
“If Google stops its criminal policies and goes back to following the law, morality and common sense, its operations will not be hampered,” he added.
On Thursday, the leader of the separatist region next to Lugansk, Leonid Passechnik, announced that he had taken the same measure.
“War consists not only of rockets raining down on our cities, but also of a cloud of false information sent to us by Ukraine. Unfortunately, Google has become their main weapon,” he accused.
“We can do without Google. If they improve, if they start respecting people, then we will consider restoring the search engine,” he added.
The pro-Russian separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine, like Russia, have sought to tighten their grip on information since the start of Moscow’s offensive against Ukraine in late February.
In Russia, new texts have been adopted punishing the publication of what the authorities consider “false information” about the army or external military operations with heavy prison sentences.
Russia has blocked major social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The country, which has its own search engine Yandex, has been striving for years to build a sovereign Internet like China.