The blocking of Telegram, WhatsApp and YouTube in Russia and the revealing silence of some

This week, Vladimir Putin's dictatorship took further steps to turn Russia into a mere copy of North Korea.

Can you imagine a politician forbidding your children from reading books and censoring the ones you read?
A minister in Pedro Sánchez's government calls for “ban Twitter”, like in Russia, Iran and North Korea

Roskomnadzor, Putin's dictatorship's censorship agency, has blocked access to Telegram, WhatsApp, and YouTube in Russia, in a further tightening of censorship in that country. Let's remember that in 2022 Russia had already blocked Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Currently, Russian internet users rely on two state-controlled social networks to communicate: VKontakte (the Russian equivalent of Facebook) and Max (the Russian version of WhatsApp).

What happened in Russia is an example of how far a politician can go if given the power to limit freedom of expression. It is not an isolated case, nor is it something that only happens in dictatorships like Russia. Let's remember that a few days ago, the president of the Spanish government, the socialist Pedro Sánchez, outlined his particular plan to censor content on social media, using the fight against "hate" as a pretext to curtail freedom of expression. Two days after that announcement, a communist minister in Sánchez's government, Sira Rego, openly proposed "banning Twitter" in Spain. This is precisely what Putin has done in Russia.

The silence of some regarding the Kremlin's ironclad digital censorship is revealing. In some cases, this silence was quite predictable. I'm referring, for example, to pro-Russian propagandists in the West. In other cases, the silence is stranger. For example, the silence of those who don't support Putin but carefully avoid mentioning the things this dictator does, while simultaneously criticizing similar actions in other countries. Finally, there is a scandalous silence: that of politicians like Sánchez and his ministers, a silence that hasn't been broken even by the most indirect criticism of Putin's plans to turn Russia into a new North Korea.

This latest silence is what should most concern all Spaniards, because it expresses our government's alignment with a concept of social media based on total state control of content, not only to prosecute illegal conduct, but also to limit freedom of expression and freedom of information. If Sánchez doesn't criticize what Putin has done with social media in Russia, it's because, ultimately, he wants something similar in Spain, further degrading our democracy, just as the socialist government has been doing with its attacks on fundamental rights, judicial independence, and the media.

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Photo: Reuters/Anton Vaganov.