Moscow:
Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s “Smart Voting” bot has disappeared from the Telegram messenger app following comparable moves by Apple and Google on Friday at the start off of a 3-day parliamentary vote in Russia.
The bot, which instructed Navalny supporters which candidate they should really back to unseat Kremlin-aligned politicians, was removed following Telegram announced it would “limit the functioning of bots associated with election campaigns.”
Telegram’s Russia-born founder Pavel Durov stated he was following Apple and Google, which “dictate the rules of the game to developers like us.”
In a post on his Telegram channel, he stated the tech giants had “already this year” urged the encrypted messenger extensively well-known in Russia to get rid of facts that violates the laws of person nations or face exclusion from their app shops.
He stated that removing election-connected bots was connected to Russia’s ban on campaigning through voting.
“We consider this practice legitimate and urge Telegram users to respect it,” Durov wrote late Friday.
But he added that “the blocking of applications by Apple and Google creates a dangerous precedent that will affect freedom of speech in Russia and around the world.”
The election for seats in the reduced property State Duma, which runs till Sunday, comes following a sweeping crackdown this year on President Vladimir Putin’s opponents.
Navalny, who was detained in January and has seen his allies arrested or flee the nation and his organisations banned, has nonetheless aimed to dent the Kremlin’s grip on parliament from behind bars.
His allies on Friday accused Apple and Google of “censorship”, though sources told AFP that the organizations had faced public threats from the Russian government and private threats of significant criminal charges and incarceration of neighborhood employees.
After Telegram removed the “Smart Voting” bot, a Twitter account linked with Navalny posted hyperlinks to Google Docs with advised candidates, saying they have been their last “remaining” tools.
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