Officials in two pro-Russian separatist regions in eastern Ukraine announced on Friday that they had blocked Google’s search engine, accusing the US company of inciting violence against the Russians.
“We have decided to block Google on Donetsk territory,” accusing the US giant of promoting “terrorism” and “violence against all Russians, especially the Donbass people,” separatist leader Denis Pushilin said on Telegram.
“If Google stops implementing its criminal policy and returns to law, morality and common sense, there will be no impediment to its activities,” he said. Pushilin accused Google of “openly working at the request of trustees in the US government.”
The neighboring separatist province of Luhansk took the same action on Thursday, according to local rebel leader Leonid Passechnik.
“War isn’t just the missiles falling on our cities, it’s also the cloud of misinformation Ukraine is sending us. Unfortunately, Google has become its main weapon,” he accused.
We can do without Google. If they get better, if they start to respect people, we will consider restoring the search engine,” he added.
Donetsk and Luhansk declared themselves independent republics in 2014, and both regions form the Donbass mining basin, which has since been partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists and is currently focused on conflicts between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
Pro-Russian separatist authorities in eastern Ukraine, such as Russia, have sought to tighten their controls over information since Moscow launched its offensive against Ukraine in February.
Russia has passed new laws punishing publications that officials describe as “false information” about the military or its military operations abroad.
Russian authorities have blocked access to social networks Instagram, Facebook and Twitter and have taken legal action against tech giant Meta, which is accused of spreading Russian “kill calls”.
source: Noticias
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