Putin’s Russian opposition deserves some honest answers from Big Tech

With Russia’s 2024 presidential election scheduled to take place this weekend, dictator Vladimir Putin’s path to a fifth term as president is all but certain. Thanks to constitutional reforms pushed by Putin himself, he will be eligible to run for an additional two six-year terms, guaranteeing his position as ruler for life.

Coming just one month after the death of opposition leader Alexey Navalny — almost certainly at the direction of Putin — these Potemkin elections testify to the rotten core of Putin’s autocracy. But rather than wallow in pessimism about the country’s bleak future, this election should be used by pro-democracy voices inside and outside of Russia to trigger new strategies to counter Putin’s authoritarianism — particularly online.

One of the key ways that the Kremlin has exerted control at home and influence abroad is by severely restricting access to independent media and investing heavily in online propaganda. Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, more than 15,000 websites have been blocked inside Russia. The Kremlin has effectively taken control over all Russian internet platforms, including social media networks such as VKontakte and search engine Yandex. Any content that strays even slightly from the party line is swiftly removed.

Over the last decade, Russia has experienced a crackdown on dissent not seen since the Soviet Union. More than 900 individuals, media outlets, and activist organizations have been designated as “undesirable” or “foreign agents”, while nearly 20,000 citizens have been detained for anti-war activities, online or in-person, since the beginning of the war on Ukraine in 2022. Laws adopted after the invasion have criminalized sharing certain types of information about the war, including even calling the conflict a “war” or an “invasion,” with draconian punishments for violators. 

Although the regime has invested significantly in control of the internet, access to major global platforms such as Google, YouTube, and Meta remain highly popular and can provide critical sources of uncensored information. Yet over the past two years, independent media and pro-democracy activists have experienced sharp decreases in traffic and social media engagement that they are unable to explain. They have also lost access to essential Western software, tools, and equipment.

The apparent reason is that Kremlin functionaries have manipulated the algorithms of search engines such as Google to de-prioritize independent Russian websites in Google and amplify Kremlin propaganda. Russian internet services such as Yandex, which is practically state-owned, can generate artificial traffic to content they want Google algorithms to promote. The state also has the legal tools to block independent media by downgrading these resources in search algorithms.

To be clear, none of this is being done with the active cooperation of Big Tech companies. Yet independent organizations and voices inside Russia have not been able to get clear answers from these Western companies on what is happening or how it can be remedied. It’s certainly true that the manipulation of online tools and platforms by authoritarian regimes such as Putin’s is a complex issue. Yet these companies, by adopting a policy of seeking to remain politically neutral in such an environment, may be unintentionally reinforcing existing power imbalances between pro-democracy actors and the authoritarian government.

If the U.S. and other democracies want to help Russia’s beleaguered pro-democracy movement, it is critical to forge a constructive dialogue between the activists and Big Tech on these issues. Given that no mechanism currently exists to facilitate such discussions, establishing a dialogue to discuss and understand mutual limitations and forging lines of contact would be an important first step that congressional leaders and officials within the Biden administration could immediately initiate.

The platforms and services provided by Big Tech play a vital role in helping independent media and civic actors connect with citizens who are hungry for facts instead of propaganda. As the Russian Federation stages yet another fixed election, and with the world still mourning the loss of opposition hero Navalny, the U.S. and other democracies must take a fresh approach to supporting Russia’s freedom fighters in cooperation with the titans of the tech world.

Patrick Quirk is the vice president for Strategy, Innovation, and Impact at the International Republican Institute and a nonresident senior fellow in the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and its Freedom and Prosperity Center.