The 98th Block: Welcome to the Splinternet
Or un-welcome to the Internet, I guess, if you're splintered off?
This week…
As news, social media and tech companies leave the Russian market, the much alluded to splinternet is here, cutting off and isolating Russia from the rest of the Internet world.
Here’s a selection of top stories on my radar, a few personal recommendations, and the chart of the week.
The splinternet in pictures: What the Internet looks like for Russians right now
Rosie Bradbury for Insider:
Truth, as the saying goes, is the first casualty of war.
Eight days after Russia invaded Ukraine, its communications agency Roskomnadzor cut off access to foreign news sites including the BBC, Deutsche Welle, and Voice of America. It also banned Facebook, which chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg attributed to the firm’s fact-checks of Russian state media posts.
Roskomnadzor went on to ban Instagram for the country’s 80 million users, sending shockwaves across Russia’s influencer industry. Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office asked a court to designate Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, as an extremist organization.
This is a real-time example of the so-called “splinternet,” said Andrew Sullivan, president of the Internet Society lobby group.
The Russians using emojis to evade censors
Rachel Schraer for BBC:
On 24 February, as Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, an image started to spread on social media - a picture of the Russian poet Pushkin, the number seven and rows of the ‘person walking’ emoji.
To those in the know, the meaning was clear - a location (Pushkin Square, in Moscow), a time and a call to protest against the government’s actions.
The emojis made reference to a code used for years in Russia to refer to protests - one so well known to the authorities, it is barely a code at all, according to human rights group OVD-Info.
So why use coded language?
Unauthorised protests have been banned in the country since 2014 and breaches of the rules can lead to up to 15 days detention for a first offence. Repeat offenders can receive prison sentences of up to five years.
Since then, it has been common for activists to use various coded phrases to organise online.
“It’s like, ‘Let's go for a walk to the centre,’ or, ‘The weather is great for a walk,’” Maria says. This is what she will text her friends to let them know she plans to attend a protest.
The internet forgot about Clubhouse. Anti-war Russians didn’t.
Chris Stokel-Walker for Input, taken in parts:
In the last few weeks, Russia has waged a single-minded campaign to shut down Western social media.
So Masha has turned to an app many people in the West may be excused for having forgotten existed: Clubhouse. During the pandemic, Clubhouse was heralded as the next big thing in social media, but it didn’t take long for it to fall out of vogue with the tech press. Still, it has maintained a dedicated user base of 10 million worldwide. Around 700,000 rooms are created every single day, according to app representatives, and many of them focus on big topics happening in the world, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
So far, Clubhouse doesn’t appear to be on the radar of Russia’s social media censors. “Any time there is a wall, information finds little places to seep through,” says Nina Gregory, head of news and media partnerships at Clubhouse.
Can’t believe a war is giving Clubhouse a second lease on life. LLAP.
What I read, watch, and listen to…
I’m reading Inside ambiguity by philosopher Andy West for Aeon.
I’m watching a review of Turning Red by a Chinese Canadian critic on Accented Cinema:
I’m listening to CIGI’s Big Tech episode, Inside the Russian Information War, with Ben Scott and Frederike Kaltheuner, hosted by Taylor Owen.
A few more stray links:
Malaysian government’s ‘gay conversion’ app pulled by Google Play by Rebecca Ratcliffe for The Guardian.
Never tweet. Social media is complicating the age-old neutrality of the public service by Kathryn May for Policy Options.
Are you laughing at me? by Jennifer Daniel for Did Someone Say Emoji about emoji as a font, tofus, and the Mandela effect of the hand over mouth 🤭 emoji.
Chart of the week
From The Future is Vast: Longtermism’s perspective on humanity’s past, present, and future by Max Roser for Our World in Data: