The Kremlin plans to strengthen digital authoritarianism in Russia - isw

It was noted that on October 4, the Russian edition "Important History" reported that the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation demanded from the social network "VKontakte" to block the publications of relatives of mobilized servicemen who call for the return of loved ones home. According to the publication, the social network hides posts with hashtags concerning treatment or return of mobilized.

Analysts have stated that the Russian Federation may have introduced such a form of censorship in accordance with the law concerning "false" information about Russian operations in Ukraine. Also on October 3, the FSB of the Russian Federation proposed a project to expand the list of personal and geolocation data that "organizers of information dissemination" should be stored and provided to law enforcement.

In particular, the FSB is entitled to unlimited access to data from users of Russian Internet banking and telecommunication companies. "Some Russian opposition media, in particular, suggested that this is an obvious expansion of digital authoritarianism can be increasingly based on a limiting Chinese model," the message said.

According to the Russian Opposition source, the Russian State Social University develops and tests the system of social rating of citizens on the basis of the Chinese model, as a result, the predictable generated social estimates will be related to personal data, which will be accessed by government agencies and banks.

Earlier, analysts reported the Kremlin's attempts to expand digital authoritarianism to observe the Russian information space, which could lead to consolidation of the authorities and strengthening control over the information space before the presidential election in 2024. We will remind, on August 10 in British intelligence said that the Kremlin decided to cut off the population of the Russian Federation from information about the war. In particular, the Russians were disconnected VPN.

The British Ministry of Defense believes that they did this to ensure that Russian citizens do not have alternative and objective international sources of information. Analysts of the Institute of War Study in the report for August 29 reported that the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation could return to limited coverage of hostilities in Ukraine. The defensive department changed the style of its daily reports, which reduced the amount of information provided on the front.