Navalny allies accuse Telegram and other platforms of censorship – Al Jazeera English

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalnys allies are accusing YouTube and Telegram of censorship after the video platform and messaging app restricted access to their anti-government voting recommendations for Russias parliamentary election.

The latest accusations came on Saturday, one day after Navalnys allies had already accused Alphabets Google and Apple of buckling under Kremlin pressure after the companies removed an app from their stores that the activists had hoped to use against the ruling party in the election.

Voting began on Friday and ran until late on Sunday.

Telegram, the social media platform used by protesters from Iran to Belarus, blocked a smart voting channel aimed at defeating ruling party nominees, which carried recommendations for candidates in Russias parliamentary elections.

The app gives detailed recommendations on who to vote for in an effort to challenge the party that backs President Vladimir Putin. It is one of the few levers Navalnys allies have left after a sweeping crackdown this year.

Telegrams founder Pavel Durov, who has carved out a libertarian image and resisted past censorship, said the platform would block election campaign services, including one used by Navalnys allies to give voter recommendations.

He said the decision had been taken because of a Russian ban on campaigning once polls are open, which he considered legitimate and is similar to bans in many other countries.

Navalnys spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh condemned the move.

Its a real disgrace when the censorship is imposed by private companies that allegedly defend the ideas of freedom, she wrote on Twitter.

Ivan Zhdanov, a political ally of Navalny, said he did not believe Telegrams justification and that the move looked to have been agreed somehow with Russias authorities.

Late on Saturday, Navalnys camp said YouTube had also taken down one of their videos that contained the names of 225 candidates they endorsed.

The video presentation of the smart voting recommendations for the constituencies with the nastiest (United Russia candidates) has also been removed, they wrote.

Navalnys camp said it was not a knockout blow as their voting recommendations were available elsewhere on social media.

But it is seen as a possible milestone in Russias crackdown on the internet and its standoff with US tech firms.

Russia has for years sought sovereignty over its part of the internet, where anti-Kremlin politicians have followings and media critical of Putin operate.

Navalnys team uses Googles YouTube widely to air anti-corruption videos and to stream coverage and commentary of anti-Kremlin protests they have staged.

Russias ruling United Russia party, which supports President Vladimir Putin, retained its parliamentary majority although its performance was slightly weaker than at the last parliamentary election in 2016 andfollows the biggest crackdown on the Kremlins domestic opponents in years.

The Navalny teams Telegram feed continued to function normally on Saturday and included links to voter recommendations available in Russia via Google Docs.

On a separate Telegram feed also used by the team, activists said Russia had told Google to remove the recommendations in Google Docs and that the US company had, in turn, asked Navalnys team to take them down.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Reuters news agency.

In his statement, Durov said Google and Apples restrictions of the Navalny app had set a dangerous precedent and meant Telegram, which is widely used in Russia, was more vulnerable to government pressure.

He said Telegram depends on Apple and Google to operate because of their dominant position in the mobile operating system market and his platform would not have been able to resist a Russian ban from 2018 to 2020 without them.

Russia tried to block Telegram in April 2018 but lifted the ban more than two years later after ostensibly failing to block it.

The app block by Apple and Google creates a dangerous precedent that will affect freedom of expression in Russia and the whole world, Durov said in a post on Telegram.

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Navalny allies accuse Telegram and other platforms of censorship - Al Jazeera English