The Washington Post - USA (2022-03-06)

A26 EZ RE THEWASHINGTONPOST.SUNDAY,MARCH 6 , 2022

disputeswithbothMetaandother

socialmediacompaniesthathave

largerRussianuserbases.

Indeed,Roskomnadzorsaidon

its Telegram channel—its own

socialmediaplatformofchoicefor

communicatingwiththeworld—

thatitrecentlysentletterstoYou-

TubeparentcompanyGoogleand

TikTok pressing themonissues

including their restrictions on

Russian statemedia and TikTok’s

algorithmrecommendingwar-re-

lated videos to minors.(Chinese-

owned TikTok, amajor primary

source of videos of the conflict

fromUkraine,hasbeenstruggling

to navigate its relationships with

Russiaand the West as the war

unfolds.)Lastmonth, Russia

warnedmajorU.S.techfirmsthat

theyhadtocomplywithanewlaw

requiringthemtosetuplegalenti-

tiesinsidethe country, giving the

governmentmoreleverage.

It’sunclearatthispointwheth-

erRussia’sblockonFacebookwill

provetemporaryorpermanent—

andwhetheritwillbefollowedby

crackdowns on other social net-

works in the country.But it is in

keepingwithaplaybookthatRus-

siaand othercountries have in-

creasinglyusedtotrytoexertcon-

troloversocialmedia, said Allie

Funk,senior research analystfor

technologyand democracyat

FreedomHouse.

“We’reincreasinglyseeingplat-

forms being blocked as away for

governmentstocoercecompanies

to abide by thestate’s censorship

and surveillance demands,” Funk

said. She cited Nigeria’s seven-

month blockofTwitter,whichit

liftedinJanuaryafter Twitter

agreedtorequeststhatincluded

stationing employees in Nigeria

and promising to respectlocal

lawsandculture.“They’reexploit-

ing their role as gatekeepers to a

particularmarket,andthey’retry-

ingtousetheplatforms’powerfor

theirownpoliticalgain.”

CatZakrzewskicontributedtothis

report.

BYLIZSLY

VIENNA—Russiapresenteda
newconditionforarevivalofthe
Iran nuclear deal on Saturday: A
U.S.guaranteethatthesanctions
thathavebeen imposed on Mos-
cow for invading Ukraine won’t
be applied to Russian trade and
investmentwithIran.
Thedemand,madebyRussian
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
in Moscow,threatens to derail
talkstorestorethe2015dealjust
as diplomatsinVienna hoped to

finalize an agreementbyearly

nextweek.

Lavrovtoldanewsconference

thatRussiawasreadytoaccepta

draftdocument restoring the

deal. But he said there were

“problems thathaveappeared

recentlyfromthepointofviewof

Russia’sinterests.”

Underthenewagreement,the

Bidenadministrationisexpected

toliftsanctionsonIranimposed

byPresidentDonaldTrumpafter

hepulledtheUnitedStatesoutof

thedealin2018,andIranwillbe

required to reverttorestraints

onitsnuclearprogram.

Theoriginal agreement,

known as the JointComprehen-

sive Plan of Action, would then

berestored.

President Biden pledgedto

return to the JCPOA, and diplo-

matshavespentmonthsinVien-

nanegotiatingthedetails.

Russia’sinvasion of Ukraine

hasaddedanewlayerofcompli-

cation by shiftingthe geopoliti-

cal calculations of the parties.

Russia was asignatory to the

originaldealalongwiththeUnit-

ed States, Iran, China, Britain,

FranceandGermany.

Given whatLavrovcalled“the

avalanche of aggressivesanc-

tions” imposed by the West on

Russia, the country couldfind

itself unable to benefitfrom

the opening up of trade and

investment opportunities with

Iran.

He said Russia wants “written

guaranteesattheminimumlevel

ofSecretaryofState”thatthe

newsanctionswon’timpactRus-

sia’s right to “free, fully fledged

trade and economic and invest-

mentcooperation and military-

technicalcooperationwithIran.”

It was unclear whethersuch

guaranteeswould be possible

butthedemanddimmedhopesa

dealwasimminent.

Russia had previouslysought

and been assuredthatthe

Ukraine-linked sanctionswould

not be appliedtoRussia’s rolein

overseeing implementation of

the JCPOA, which givesRussia

responsibility for removingand

storingIran’s excessstockpilesof

enricheduranium, diplomats

say.

Lavrov’scomments on Satur-

daysuggest Russia is seeking a

far broader exemption,asenior

Westerndiplomatsaid.Ifso,that

would be “a serious problemfor

thenegotiation,”hesaid.

With almostall of thefinal

details now ironed out, anynew

demand wouldinevitably pro-

longthe negotiation, and “in the

currentenvironment, anydelay

isrisky,”thediplomatadded.

Russia’s demand for relief against sanctions threatens Iran nuclear talks

book, alongwithYouTube, the

messaging app Telegram, and

Facebook’ssister appsWhatsApp

andInstagram.Forthevastmajor-

ity of Russians, ablock on Face-

bookitselfshouldhavelittletono

impactondaily life or communi-

cation.

Tellingly,initial indications

were thatWhatsApp and Insta-

gram would remainaccessible to

Russians, at leastfor the time be-

ing,even though they arealso

ownedbyFacebook’s parentcom-

panyMeta. So would YouTube,

despiteits own restrictionson

Russian outlets such as RT and

Sputnik.Thereweresomereports

thatTwitter, which is not widely

usedinRussia but servesasan

information conduitwiththe

West,was inaccessible in Russia

on Friday, though neither the

countrynor thecompanycon-

firmedthatithadbeenblocked.

BlockingFacebook,then,isless

of abroadsideagainstsocialme-

diainRussiathan it is ashot

acrossthe bow —adramatic but

largelysymbolicactthatservesas

awarningand athreat.Because

Facebookissoprominent in the

West,theblockstandstomakebig

headlines outside Russia while

provoking relatively littleoutcry

fromwithin. Nowthe censorship

agencycan point to its hardline

against Facebook in its ongoing

BYWILLOREMUS

Russia’sInternet censorship
agencyannouncedonFridaythat
it plans to block accesstoFace-
book throughoutthe country,
joiningasmall handful of the
world’smostrepressiveregimesin
cutting offits citizens fromthe
world’slargestsocial network. In
an Orwellian twist, theagency,
calledRoskomnadzor,said it
madethemovetoupholdthefree
flow of information,blaming
Facebookfor restrictionsithas
placed on Russian statemedia
outletsinrecentdays.
Of course, blocking Facebook
isn’t reallyabout upholdingfree
speechfor Russian President
Vladimir Putin, whohas spent
years eroding press and online
freedomsand arresting protest-
ers.ButcontrarytowhatWestern
observers might assume, it also
isn’t reallyaboutrestricting Rus-
sians’ accesstosocialmedia—at
least,not directly. It’s an actof
intimidation aimed at bringing
othersocialnetworkstoheel.
In manycountries,Facebookis
adominantsocialplatform,anda
blackout of the blue appwould
dealastiflingblowtoonlinecom-
munication.Thatwas the case in
Myanmar when the military
blockedthesocialnetworkaspart
of acampaign to silencedissent
afteracouplastyear.
But it isn’t the case in Russia,
where Facebook is usedbyfewer
than1in10people, accordingto
data from eMarketer.Far more
popularareVK,aRussian-owned
socialnetwork modeled on Face-

Kremlin Facebook ban isn’t for restriction —it’s for intimidation

Source: eMarketer,SimilarWeb THE WASHINGTON POST

YouTube leadsamongsocialmediasitesusedbyRussians

Percent of Russian Internetuserswho areactivemonthlyonsocial media sites

YouTube

WhatsApp

VK

Instagram

Odnoklassniki

Telegram

TikTok

Snapchat

Facebook

Twitter

0% 20% 40% 60% 80%

74.5%

66.3

62

51.1

32.7

32.5

25.6

8.6

7.3

4.9

ALEXANDERZEMLIANICHENKO/ASSOCIATEDPRESS

Twowomen

look at a

smartphonein

Moscowin

2020. Fewer
      than1in10
      peopleuse
      Facebook,but
      Russia’s move
      to block it had
      broader aims
      than
      restricting
      citizensfrom
      the social
      mediasite.

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