Social Media Fueled Russian Protests Despite Government Attempts To Censor

Enlarge this image

People attend a rally in support of jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Saint Petersburg on Saturday.

Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images

Europe
Kremlin Critic Alexei Navalny Detained After Returning To Russia Following Poisoning

Social media helped spark and organize the protests, after Navalny called on his supporters to take to the streets on Saturday. Videos and posts promoting action quickly went viral, particularly on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram. TikTok videos with the hashtags involving «Free Navalny» and «23 January» garnered more than 200 million combined views by Thursday, according to the news site Open Media.

Young people in particular began filming themselves dressing for upcoming rallies, or as The Moscow Times noted, removing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s portrait hanging in classrooms and often replacing it with Navalny’s photo.

But the Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor quickly jumped to pressure social media platforms to remove videos that it said called for minors to participate in protests, warning that it was illegal for them to do so. On Friday, the government claimed that 38% of all offending videos on TikTok, 50% on YouTube and 17% on Instagram had been removed. By Saturday Roskomnadzor said more messages had been deleted on TikTok and Russian social media app Vkontakte. Facebook and Google, the owners of Instagram and YouTube respectively, expressed uncertainty about the accuracy of the numbers, Gizmodo reported.

World
More Than 3,000 Arrested In Russia In Protests Calling For Release Of Alexei Navalny

The attempt at restricting social media communication didn’t stop protesters from showing up in the tens of thousands in dozens of cities across Russia, from the island of Sakhalin, just north of Japan, all the way to Moscow, posting on social media along the way and begging for the world to watch.

In Irkutsk, near the Mongolian boarder, thousands chanted «We will not leave!»

Иркутск: «Мы не уйдём!» pic.twitter.com/9HIsGgXAcp

— Борис Золотаревский (@ZolotorevskiyB) January 23, 2021

In the northern area of Yakutia, protesters gathered in temperatures around minus 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

@ioannZH shares photo of Navalny protest in Yakutia, where its -50 c pic.twitter.com/MUq0ZEkwXe

— Jake Rudnitsky (@Rudnit) January 23, 2021

Even in areas that usually avoid opposition protests, large crowds came out in support of Navalny.

Protests reach Kazan, #Tatarstan, which usually tries to keep off the federal agenda with strict control over regional opposition. #Navalny #navalnyprotests pic.twitter.com/287SHthC50

— Rim Gilfanov (@guilfanr) January 23, 2021

In Moscow, where protesters streamed through the streets in droves, demonstrators clashed with riot police in tense standoffs.

Пожалуйста, посмотрите это видео. На нем ОМОН провоцирует детей на драку сегодня на Пушкинской. Это день позора Российской полиции. Беспорядки устроили представители власти. pic.twitter.com/xpVufj67VS

— Дмитрий Петрович Алешковский (@aleshru) January 23, 2021

One video of a police officer grabbing a child while onlookers filmed on smartphones has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

Жесть какая. Это увидит вся страна. pic.twitter.com/Ltu4GI74ng

— Юлия Галямина (@galiamina) January 23, 2021

And in some places, protesters threw snowballs at government officials and police.

More remarkable footage from tonight: protesters pelt with snowballs and kick a black government car. https://t.co/GdDWqEimEx

— Anton Troianovski (@antontroian) January 23, 2021

By Sunday, over 3,500 demonstrators across the country had been detained, according to OVD-Info, an activist group that monitors arrests and protests. The group said it had never tracked so many arrests.

The U.S. State Department condemned the violence and arrests, citing the Russian government’s attempt to control social media platforms and tighten restrictions on independent media.

«Continued efforts to suppress Russians’ rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression, the arrest of opposition figure Aleksey Navalny, and the crackdown on protests that followed are troubling indications of further restrictions on civil society and fundamental freedoms,» said department spokesperson Ned Price in a statement. «We call on Russian authorities to release all those detained for exercising their universal rights and for the immediate and unconditional release of Aleksey Navalny.»

Anton Svetushkov, a business student attending the protests on Saturday night, told NPR it was his first rally ever. Even as arrests were happening around him, he said he was ready to be there.

«There is a certain point where you say, OK, now I have to go beyond my own insecurities and just step up,» Svetushkov said.