Authors

Discussion

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has disintegrated the Russian social media space from the global Internet. Presently, only YouTube and Google services maintain connections between large Russian audiences and the global network, while Russian platforms, under significant state pressure, have implemented stringent content filtering. This disruption has disconnected the Russian émigré political opposition from a substantial part of its audience, exacerbating concerns about the role of new media and their personalization algorithms as gatekeepers. The US IT corporations, despite withdrawing from the Russian market, continue to maintain a significant user base within the country. Although their platforms have been perceived as natural allies by Russian civil rights activists over the past decade, this presentation explores the contradictions that arise between the efforts of the Russian opposition to sustain their audience within the country and the content policies of Google services as a case study. The shadow banning of so-called "too war content", the saturation of media space with infotainment and the inflexible approach to the complete withdrawal from the Russian advertising market highlight challenges faced by Russian media operating in exile. These issues are further exacerbated by the bureaucratization of Google and what one interlocutor described as "techsplaining", referring to a practice where criticism of the functioning of recommendation services is dismissed by attributing it to the critics' supposed lack of technical expertise. The set of spontaneously developed strategies is quite diverse. Firstly, it involves efforts to establish a direct communication channel with GAFAM representatives. However, respondents report that this channel is inconsistent, chronically lacking in feedback, and that Google's stated willingness to cooperate on optimizing news output is often merely declarative. The opacity and limitations of this channel have resulted in the privilege of direct collaboration with GAFAM being discredited by other opposition figures, who perceive it as an attempt to gain an unfair competitive advantage within the independent media landscape. A second strategy, particularly prevalent among dissidents of the Russian IT industry, involves mobilizing horizontal connections within the developer community to draw the attention of big tech management to the dysfunction and misuse of personalization systems within the Russophone segment. However, this approach faces significant obstacles, including the strict internal discipline within the company and the opportunism of highly paid Google developers. A third approach sees Russian opposition figures leveraging the tradition of publicly criticizing the profit-driven models of big tech firms in Western public opinion while seeking strong allies, such as Euro-regulators, who, as their experience shows, are more receptive to such concerns.