Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Russian Government Building Its Own Facebook


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While China employs thousands of censors to keep a close eye on social media such as Sina Weibo, the Russian government is trying a different approach: Creating its own social network for Russians to share content and speak online.
Russia is attempting to create its own Facebook-style network built upon a website for complaining about civil servants launched earlier this year, according to The Guardian.

The newly announced network may be a response to the increased use of social media by anti-government protestors. A number of uprisings have been organized since President Vladimir Putin announced he would run for another term late last year, many of which were planned online. Some Russian protesters have gained notority as leaders of the anti-Putin movement through their social media accounts and blogs.
Facebook, Twitter, and Russia-based VK (formerly VKontakte) and Odnoklassniki have been the favored networks of Russian protestors.
Russian Internet users already have a much more free experience than their Chinese counterparts. If the Russian government could attract users away from already-existing platforms, it could potentially censor content it deems unsavory and steer the digital conversation away from politically sensitive topics.
The Kremlin’s proposed network will face strong competition from those already-popular networks for two major reasons: First, they don’t have nearly the same Big Brother feel that users of a government-owned platform would surely experience. Second, those social networks already have a great deal of users: VK has about 118 million, Odnoklassniki claims 45 million, Twitter has about five million and Facebook’s Russian user base is growing at a rate of almost 375%.

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