**Adaptation for English-speaking Audience: Basis for Search: Social Network**

 **Adaptation for English-speaking Audience: Basis for Search: Social Network**

*Source: agentura.ru, 4 min, December 4, 2023*

*Andrey Soldatov, Irina Borogan*

Russian internet censors have once again changed the rules of the game by putting Meta's spokesperson, Andy Stone, on the wanted list on charges of extremism.

For many years, Russian authorities have been at odds with Facebook, one of the few social networks where public discussions about what is really happening in the country can still take place. This longstanding battle has involved battles over moving servers with the data of Russian citizens to Russian territory, providing Russian security services access to user correspondence, and, of course, establishing direct censorship (deleting posts and blocking accounts).

Regardless of the specific issues at any given moment, the Kremlin has never deviated from its main goal – to compel Facebook and Instagram to comply with the "phone law," allowing them to call a special number and demand action on content in these social networks. To achieve this, the Kremlin has also pressured "Yandex," securing the coveted number for the president's administration back in 2009.

In March 2022, just a few days after the invasion of Ukraine, decisive changes occurred when the Kremlin declared Facebook and Instagram illegal, accusing them of "extremist activities." A month later, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a stop-list of 29 US citizens, including Meta's founder Mark Zuckerberg. This was perceived as a symbolic gesture, an attempt to mimic American and European sanctions against high-ranking Russian officials. The list included a diverse group – from George Stephanopoulos of ABC and David Ignatius of the Washington Post to US Vice President Kamala Harris.

The attack on Andy Stone has nothing to do with this.

The stop-list of 29 names was about travel bans to Russia (sending a message: "we don't want these people to come to us"), while being wanted primarily serves as intimidation. We write these words based on our own experience: one of the authors has been wanted in Russia since March of last year.

Being wanted means that the person on the list becomes the target of Russian surveillance – online and, if possible, offline. Their messages become a legitimate target for the Russian interception system known as SORM and all other methods that Russian security and intelligence services deem appropriate to use.

In addition to intercepting communications, these measures (called OCM – operational-search measures) include tracking the person's movements. These measures are not limited to trips to Russia – Russian special services, despite the war, still have the ability to track international flights far beyond Russian borders, as two journalists from "Important Stories" found out when they traveled to Sweden for a journalism conference in September of this year. They discovered that Russian special services were aware of their trip when they received a message through the publication's feedback form describing the upcoming trip to Gothenburg, including information about flights and hotel reservations.

This is a very effective combination of espionage and intimidation, and there is no reason to believe that it will not be used against other enemies of the Kremlin regime.

Furthermore, it cannot be said that intimidating managers of global platforms is a new phenomenon in Russia. In June 2014, it was revealed that Marina Zhunich, Google's director of GR, came under surveillance by a private security service of a businessman close to the Kremlin. When one of the authors tried to question her about the surveillance, Zhunich refused to speak. The Kremlin knew exactly what it was doing, and Zhunich was right to be concerned for her safety – the businessman behind this operation was none other than Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Personal attacks on employees of global platforms are also not an original Russian invention. In 2016, Diego Dzodan, vice president of Facebook in Latin America based in São Paulo, was arrested by Brazilian authorities for refusing to comply with local law enforcement demands to provide data from WhatsApp. The head of Facebook spent 24 hours in a Brazilian prison.

But there is something else that makes us reassess Kremlin methods of pressure, and this new factor emerged since the start of the war. Now, being wanted is a direct indication that a person on the list may become a legitimate target for an abduction operation by Russian special services outside of Russia.

This fall, Russian left-wing activist and anarchist Lev Skoryakin, awaiting a decision on political asylum from the German authorities in Kyrgyzstan, was detained by local police. In early November, he was found in a Moscow pre-trial detention center.

His "crime" is that he participated in the 2021 protest near the FSB building in Moscow. He was charged with hooliganism – a much less serious crime than the one Andy Stone is accused of – extremism and aiding terrorist activities.

If there was ever an illusion that such a threat could only befall Russian citizens, it has been completely dispelled when two American journalists – Evan Gershkovich from the Wall Street Journal and Alsu Kurmasheva from Radio Liberty – were thrown into Russian prisons. Evan and Alsu are still in custody.

Now Andy Stone needs to take the choice of countries he plans to visit very seriously – as long as there are states that accept Russian extradition requests processed outside of Interpol procedures based on bilateral agreements.

*Originally published in English on CEPA.*

*Agentura.ru 2023*

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