MOSCOW, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Alphabet's Google (GOOGL.O) and Apple (AAPL.O) have removed jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's tactical voting app from their stores, his team said on Friday, after Russia accused the U.S. tech firms of meddling in its internal affairs.
Russia goes to the polls on Friday to elect a new parliament in a three-day vote that the ruling United Russia party is expected to win despite a ratings slump after the biggest crackdown on the Kremlin's critics in years. read more
Allies of Navalny, President Vladimir Putin's fiercest domestic opponent, planned to use the mobile app to organise a tactical voting campaign to deal a blow to United Russia.
The Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny's Smart Voting app is seen on a phone, in Moscow, Russia September 16, 2021. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov
Russia demanded this month that Apple and Google remove the app from their stores, saying a refusal to do so would be treated as meddling in its parliamentary election.
Apple and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On Thursday, Russia said official approaches had been made to the two companies' chief executives. read more
Ivan Zhdanov, a Navalny ally based abroad, said on Friday the removal amounted to political censorship.
Reporting by Anton Zverev and Alexander Marrow; Writing by Maria Kiselyova; Editing by Robert Birsel
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Itamii on September 17th, 2021 at 12:37 UTC »
What kinda 'pressure' could that be i wonder.
Russia demanded this month that Apple and Google remove the app from their stores, saying a refusal to do so would be treated as meddling in its parliamentary election.
Lmao, the irony.
stantyan on September 17th, 2021 at 07:13 UTC »
As I understood, their "sovereign internet" law opened the door for Russian authorities to demand from any tech giant anything they want hiding behind bogus court decisions, and basically build their own version of the China's Great Firewall.
Also they have really improved their tech and algorithms to block any DoT and DoH traffic by installing special hardware/devices in most of the Internet and cellular network providers. Yesterday they have blocked access to Google Docs from Russia c̶o̶m̶p̶l̶e̶t̶e̶l̶y̶ partially for some ISPs just because Navalny's team have posted some text there, Hell they are so desperate at the moment they are ready to shut down internet completely.
Novichok7 on September 17th, 2021 at 06:55 UTC »
Google did well ignoring countless demands to delete Navalny YouTube channel or to delete smart voting from search results. Too bad they gave up.