The American giant Google has blocked access to two lists and two videos presenting candidates recommended by Russian opponent Alexei Navalny during the legislative and regional elections, which end on Sunday in Russia.
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The supporters of Alexeï Navalny accused the company on Saturday evening of having blocked these two lists of candidates in the country, published on Google Docs, an online word processing service. Sunday morning, the documents were inaccessible, noted AFP journalists in Moscow. “
Sorry. You cannot access this item because it violates our terms of use,
”a message from Google said.
On Twitter, the opponent's team also published two links to videos blocked on Youtube - owned by Google - in which are also mentioned candidates recommended by Alexeï Navalny.
"
This content is blocked in the domain of your country at the request of government structures
", indicated Sunday morning messages blocking access to these videos.
“Smart voting” guidelines
The Navalny team said on Saturday that it had received instructions from Google to delete the two lists in question, after a request to this effect from the Russian telecoms gendarme, Roskomnadzor.
Contacted by AFP on Saturday, Google did not comment.
The supporters of Alexeï Navalny, in prison since January, have set up a strategy known as the “
intelligent vote
” intended to support the candidate - often Communist - best placed to put in difficulty that of the capacity.
In the past, this tactic had met with some success, especially during elections in Moscow in 2019. But the authorities, while banning Alexeï Navalny's organizations for "
extremism
" in June, have in recent months worked to block everything. access to these voting instructions.
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Google and Apple had already bent on Friday by agreeing to remove the “
smart voting
” mobile application from their respective stores
.
The partisans of Alexeï Navalny then accused the two American firms of "
yielding to the blackmail of the Kremlin
".
Encrypted messaging Telegram, very popular in Russia, also on Saturday removed an automatic software (bot) through which voters could receive these voting instructions.
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