Tech giants, Facebook and Google, have been accused of interfering in Russia’s local elections which took place on the 8th of September. The accusation concerns the issue of political advertising on election day and the day preceding it.
In a statement released by Russia’s communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, it acknowledged that it had warned both companies about showing political advertisements on the 7th and 8th of September, in line with Russian law. The statement reads:
“During the monitoring of mass media on voting day, the facts of distribution on the Google search engine, on the social network Facebook and on video hosting Youtube of political advertising were established. These actions can be considered as interference in the sovereign affairs of Russia and obstructing the conduct of democratic elections in the Russian Federation.
Such actions by foreign companies are unacceptable.”
Ironic?
Recently, Russia has been accused of meddling in foreign elections. According to Forbes Contributor, Zak Doffman, “Russia has been painted as the world’s leading proponent of election interference…the country has been seen to lead the way in the use of social media platforms and data analytics to play games with news and information dissemination overseas.”
Response
Facebook did not confirm any wrongdoing, stating that it was the responsibility of the advertisers to follow local laws. In a statement published by the BBC, it said: “It was up to advertisers to make sure their messages were sent out at appropriate times.”
Google has neither confirmed nor denied its complicity. It said in a statement: “We support responsible political advertising and expect that it has to comply with local legislative demands including the laws on elections and voting rights and mandatory ‘election silence’ for any geographical areas where such advertising is oriented.”
This is not the first time the tech giants are coming under fire for their operations in the country. Doffman reported that “both Google and Facebook have been threatened with restrictions or even bans in Russia for not playing along with censorship and the storage of data overseas.”
According to RT, a news organisation funded by the Russian government, Google may be banned because of its unwillingness to connect its search engine to the federal database of banned websites. Facebook has also faced similar threats “due to its storing of Russian citizens’ personal data on servers located abroad.”
