Introduction
Résumé
On February 24, 2022, as the military offensive against Ukraine unfolded, media censorship along with the monitoring and blocking of the internet immediately intensified in Russia. The enlistment of the internet in the service of the Russian state's warmongering suddenly accelerated and allowed the authorities to subdue the public sphere into wartime compliance. The war justified a brutal tightening of the network of restrictions and constraints that were already weighing down on digital infrastructures and actors. Amendments to the legal framework made it even more restrictive, so that any criticism of the army or mention of the term "war" became prohibited (replaced by the official, Orwellian terminology of "special military operation"). This censorship caused many media outlets to cancel potential publications. Criminal cases were opened against independent journalists and opponents of the war, while the Ministry of Justice's register of "foreign agents" grew considerably. The Russian government also blocked international social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, X/Twitter, and, in 2024, Signal and YouTube) and tightened its control over local actors of the digital industry (VKontakte, Yandex). These decisions came as sanctions prompted many foreign digital operators to leave the country and to disconnect their infrastructures from the Russian network. How did this authoritarian dynamic come to be in a digital space that was initially free?
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