Russian government’s assault on free speech amid the Ukraine war looks strikingly similar to the world American conservatives are trying to create.
Over the past two weeks, the Russian government has taken steps to eliminate any semblance of a free and fair press as it continues its brutal invasion of Ukraine. The crackdown has been multipronged, involving laws passed through Russia’s parliament, edicts handed down by Russian government agencies and the threat of physical violence by Russian law enforcement officials. Taken together, these steps aim to eliminate press freedoms and construct an alternate reality for people living in Russia. Americans observing Russia’s quick turn toward totalitarianism should take this as forewarning, because similar ideas have been floated in the United States, as well. On Friday, I reported on the Russian government’s Facebook ban, a move the Kremlin made after Facebook fact-checked posts about the invasion made by government-backed media. Roskomnadzor, the Russian agency that controls mass media, claimed without evidence that Facebook committed “26 cases of discrimination against Russian media and information resources.” Those bogus allegations of social media discrimination sound quite similar to claims Republicans made all throughout 2020, when former President Donald Trump and other conservative figures frequently shared misinformation that was flagged and occasionally removed from social platforms.
