By Our Reporter
Abuja (Precise Post) – Russian President Vladimir Putin today sounded a warning about the influence of global tech giants which he said were ‘competing’ with national governments, after Russia told internet firms to take down posts that had fuelled Alexei Navalny-inspired protests.
Putin told the virtual Davos summit that tech companies were ‘not just economic giants… in some areas they are already de facto competing with the state’.
‘We just saw it all in the United States,’ he added, referring to the Capitol riot incited by Donald Trump which led to the then-president being banned from Twitter – a move which has caused disquiet in several European countries.
Putin’s comments come as Russia ramps up pressure on the activities of foreign tech giants, which are not subject to the same state censorship as most media outlets.
Moscow earlier this week accused US tech platforms of interfering in Russia’s internal affairs during the anti-government protests egged on by Navalny.
Ahead of the Navalny rallies, Russia’s media watchdog Roskomnadzor ordered several online platforms, including YouTube and Instagram, to delete posts by users calling for protesters to attend demonstrations.
The chairman of the Russian parliament’s foreign interference committee, Vasily Piskaryov, said today that the head of TikTok’s Russian branch had been invited in for a conversation.
Piskaryov was quoted by the TASS news agency as saying that ‘questions had piled up’ about the China-based video-sharing service.
In recent months, TikTok has emerged as a popular platform for young Russians to express their political views.
Hashtags dedicated to Navalny have been trending on TikTok, garnering more than 1.5billion views, after the anti-corruption campaigner was jailed on his return to Russia from Germany.
Putin said today it was unclear where the line is between a ‘successful global business’ and ‘attempts to crudely, at their own discretion, control society’.
His comments echo those of European leaders including Angela Merkel who voiced concern about Trump’s Twitter ban and the power it gave to US tech giants.
Trump’s Twitter account was permanently suspended earlier this month after he caused the riot at the Capitol and continued to use Twitter to spread his spurious claims that the 2020 election was rigged against him.
Merkel’s spokesman said she viewed Trump’s ban as ‘problematic’, saying that freedom of opinion was a ‘fundamental right of elementary importance’.
‘This fundamental right can be interfered with, but through the law and within the framework defined by the legislature, not according to the decision of the management of social media platforms,’ her spokesman said.
EU governments have frequently clashed with US internet giants whom they accuse of holding too much power.
Poland recently moved to curb the power of Facebook and Twitter by drawing up plans for a ‘freedom of speech council’ which could overrule their decisions.
Social media sites would only be allowed to ban users for breaking Polish law under the plans unveiled by Warsaw earlier this month.
Putin himself signed new legislation last month allowing Russia to block or restrict access to sites that ‘discriminate’ against its media, raising fears that the Kremlin is seeking to introduce China-style controls.
Twitter currently labels some Russian media ‘state-affiliated media’, a move decried by Moscow.
Another introduces hefty fines of up to 20 per cent of their previous year’s Russia-based turnover for sites that repeatedly fail to remove banned content.
‘I strongly hope that such ‘hot’ global conflict is impossible now. It would mean the end of civilization,’ he said. ‘But the situation may become unpredictable and spin out of control.
‘There is a real danger that we will face a downturn in global development fraught with an all-out fight, attempts to solve contradictions by searching for internal and foreign enemies, and the destruction of basic traditional values.’
Putin attributed the worsening economic situation to a Western liberal economic model that he said ‘foments social, racial and ethnic intolerance with tensions erupting even in countries with seemingly long-established civil and democratic institutions.’
The Russian leader pointed to what he described as the negative role of technology companies that run top social networks, charging that they have abused their position and tried to ‘control the society, replace legitimate democratic institutions and usurp an individual’s right to decide how to live and what views to express.
