In Russia in 2022, the number of blocks of Internet resources and the number of criminal prosecutions for expressing opinions on the Internet increased to a record high, according to the annual report of the Network Freedoms project.
Last year, as noted by the authors of the report, more than 637 thousand cases of blocking of Internet pages were recorded – this is an absolute record for 15 years, during which “Network Freedoms” have been monitoring the level of freedom in Runet.
In my country blocked
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One of the main reasons for the increased number of blocks, according to the authors of the study, was the adoption of a package of laws on military censorship, establishing criminal and administrative liability for criticizing the armed forces, as well as the actions of authorities abroad.
“Based on the ‘military’ orders of the Prosecutor General’s Office and Roskomnadzor, dozens of independent Russian and foreign media, blog platforms, news aggregators, websites of human rights and charitable organizations, social networks – extremist and banned Facebook and Instagram, as well as Twitter, were blocked,” the document says. .
Human rights activists also recorded 779 cases of criminal prosecution of Russians for expressing opinions on the Internet, which, according to their data, was the annual maximum in 15 years of observation.
Due to the threat of criminal prosecution and a ban on the profession, according to the authors of the report, at least one thousand journalists emigrated from Russia last year. “The evacuation of entire teams and individual professionals created the prerequisites for the emergence of a “second Runet”, offering fellow citizens and the world a view of events free from state censorship,” human rights activists emphasize.
Also in 2022, cases of hacking government and corporate databases became more frequent, which, according to the authors of the report, became an element of cyberwars. At the same time, a record number of 260 leaks of personal data affected at least 75% of the country’s inhabitants.
The authors of the report drew attention to the fact that most of the leading international IT companies left the Russian market last year, including Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple, Intel, Qualcomm, IBM, Nokia, Symantec and others, partially or completely. Also, about 100 thousand IT specialists left Russia, and this is every tenth employee of Russian IT companies.
The report notes that international human rights organizations dealing with issues of freedom of speech, once again noted the deterioration of the situation in Russia against the backdrop of the decline of human rights around the world. Thus, in the World Press Freedom Index, published annually by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Russia has dropped from 150th place to 155th, and is between Azerbaijan (154) and Afghanistan (156). Above it in the ranking are Belarus (153), Zimbabwe (137) and Somalia (140).
The authors of the study also point out that according to the Freedom on the Net rating, Russia, which belongs to the category
“non-free countries” showed the largest drop (by 7 points). The closest followers are Myanmar (5 points) and Sudan (4 points). In the general list of 70 countries, Russia is on the 65th position.
