Russia blocked the website of the German newspaper Bild

The Russian communications regulator, Roskomnadzor, has blocked access to the website of the German tabloid Bild in Russia ., as indicated by the Interfax agency and verified by Efe.

The page has been blocked at the request of the General Prosecutor’s Office on Saturday, according to the Russian media.

In recent weeks, Russia has blocked and prohibited access in the country to various media and information resources, both international and Russian, critical of the Kremlin. The argument put forward is that they spread false information about the so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine or allowed, in the case of social networks, calls for violence against Russians, including the military.

Among the outlets banned are international outlets Euronews, BBC, Deutsche Welle, Voice of America, and Radio Liberty, as well as independent Russians, Echo Moscow, Tv Rain, and Meduza (based in Latvia).

In addition, Russia has restricted access to the Google news service and the social networks Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Disinformation as a military strategy

The coverage of the war launched by Russia against Ukraine on February 24 shows the opposition between free and committed journalism and the directed and distorted information presented by Russia.

In Russia, most of the media are controlled directly or indirectly by the state or by groups close to President Putin. The few independent media that remain find many limitations to their work and many of them are described as “foreign agents”.

Today, words like “war”, “Ukrainian army” or “invasion” cannot be used by the media under threat of web blocking and economic fines. The audiovisual media do not broadcast images of Ukraine, just as they have not shown images of Russian hospitals during the pandemic. They are realities alien to Russian citizens. The invasion has been presented as a “military operation to denazify” a part of Ukraine and protect the Russian-speaking population from “genocide”. However, many Russian journalists have spoken out against the war; they have promoted manifestos of condemnation and have denounced the cultural, economic and social degradation that the conflict will mean for Russia.

Disinformation is an ancient technique, used systematically in armed conflicts. Russia has developed a great cyber capacity to generate disinformation abroad with the so-called “Internet Research Agency” and the RT and Sputnik media, among others. The media generates the content and the trolls act on social networks, generating many confusing narratives, creating doubts and confusing facts and opinions. The fundamental objective of these operations is to build and spread arguments favourable to the Russian government and its foreign policy.