It is extremely messed up. From what I can tell tech guys started good faith businesses, the free flow of info made the Kremlin nervous, and the Kremlin weaseled it’s way in over the years with regulation that limited the tech companies from not only becoming truly global but from sharing global truthful news in Russia.
Below is an excerpt from yesterday’s Washington Post article.
“The toll on Yandex is accelerating, current employees told The Post.
Yandex now must block access to more and more sites as they are banned by the government.
And its news aggregation site, the country’s most popular, carries fewer than a third of the outlets it offered before the law that required all of them to be licensed.
Lev Gershenzon, a former head of Yandex’s news section who now lives in Germany,
posted publicly six days after the invasion that his old company was now a part of the problem.
“The fact that a significant part of the population of Russia may believe that there is no war is the basis and driving force of this war. Yandex today is a key element in hiding information about the war.
“Every day and hour of such ‘news’ is human lives. And you, my former colleagues, are also responsible for this,” he wrote. “It’s not too late to stop being partners in a terrible crime. If you can’t do anything, quit.”
Yandex itself is now trying to quit the news business. Last month, it
publicly announced that it was looking for buyers. The company did not respond to a request for comment.”
...
The PHF has not condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 11 million Ukrainians have fled their homes, like 5 million have fled the country. Most men can’t leave because by law they have to stay and fight for Ukraine, so family separation is rampant as women and children flee alone.
News Russians should know.
Definitely messed up.