In order to control information about the war in Ukraine, in recent weeks the Russian government has tightened censorship of news sites that did not correspond to the government’s version of events and blocked access to several social networks. The measures have not only forced several Russian newspapers to shut down by order of state communications agency Roskomnadzor or in application of a new law that defines anything not approved by the government as “fake news; They also forced many Russian bloggers and influencers who worked and earned from social media and online platforms to reorganize in order not to lose their followers and limit the economic damage.
Some have decided to leave the country and focus on an international audience by starting to create content in English. Many others are migrating en masse to governmentsanctioned alternative platforms that have a vested interest in controlling the distribution of online content and using influencers as a propaganda tool.
The blockades imposed by the Russian government on the most used and widespread social networks were implemented mainly in March. Earlier this month, Roskomnadzor first blocked Facebook and Twitter, and then Instagram, partly in response to measures put in place by the platforms to curb Russian disinformation about the war in Ukraine. On March 21, a Russian court then outlawed Meta, the US company that controls Instagram and Facebook, for “extremist activities.”
There were also other restrictions that the platforms imposed on Russian users: Also in March, for example, YouTube suspended its monetization programs for many Russian users, i.e. the opportunity to earn money with their own content.
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Among the influencers and content creators who have decided to leave in the face of these measures, said Nieman Lab magazine, there is Greg Mustreader, a Russian blogger who mainly used his channels before the war (Youtube, Twitter, Instagram) himself deal with a wide variety of cultural issues. But by the time the war began, Mustreader had begun to criticize the government’s actions in Ukraine. Eventually, fearing government sanctions, he decided to leave and fled to Istanbul, Turkey, where he started producing English content on TikTok as well and soon reached 100,000 followers.
However, many other influencers, bloggers and content creators have chosen to stay in Russia and switch to the platforms sanctioned by the Russian government.
The most used are VKontakte (VK), which is practically the Russian version of Facebook, RuTube, which is used by Youtube, or Yandex Zen, a kind of news aggregator similar to Flipboard, which, unlike Flipboard, also allows you to post content. Many continue to use Telegram, which the Russian government has not yet blocked. Recently there is also Rossgram, a kind of Russian copy of Instagram.
The data appears to confirm the existence of what Nieman Lab has dubbed “mass migration to Russian governmentsanctioned platforms. According to a survey conducted by independent Russian communications company Twiga in midMarch of around 500 Russian bloggers and online content creators, 69 percent said they intended to transfer followers and content to stateapproved platforms despite some risk of losing one Part of its audience, the use of less advanced platforms than western ones and the lack of monetization programs.
A consequence of this process is that several Russian influencers have become increasingly “politicized by aligning themselves with government propaganda. News reports also showed that many of them were paid to support the Russian version of the facts about the war in Ukraine.
However, the dissemination of progovernment messages by Russian influencers seems to be continuing through traditional channels too: several newspapers these days have picked up the video series in which some wellknown influencers ripped up some Chanel bags live on their Instagram , probably bypassing the social block with the Using a private network (VPN) to protest the suspension of sales of Chanel products in Russia. Influencers in particular protested the decision of some Chanel stores not to sell their products to people planning to bring them to Russia.
Russian TV presenter Marina Ermoshkina launched the video series in a video in which she accused Chanel of “discrimination” and “Russian hostility”.
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