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Facebook’s, Google’s actions during elections in Russia were aggressive — watchdog chief

The watchdog exposed political advertising exercised by Google, Facebook and YouTube during elections in Russia, including on the day of pre-election silence

© EPA-EFE/Julien de Rosa

SOCHI, September 24. /TASS/. Facebook’s and Google’s advertising during the latest elections in Russia could be seen as aggressive actions, chief of Russia’s telecom and mass media watchdog, Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, said on Tuesday.

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"Facebook’s and Google’s actions were apparently aggressive during the elections. More to it, on a single voting day a year ago, we met with the companies’ representatives to discuss details, and we explained to them the norms of Russian laws. So, I cannot say the companies did not know what they were doing. Their position that they only provided a platform for advertising by other people is nothing but trickery as their instruments were used," he said, adding that such instruments are regulated by companies.

"They are free to provide them for certain types of advertising or not. So, I think we can say that the companies behaved in a wrong way and interfered into our elections. That’s a fact," he said. "I don’t think we should be in a hurry in this situation. We should scrutinize every aspect of it and take the right collective decision."

Roskomnadzor spokesman Vadim Ampelonsky said earlier the watchdog had exposed political advertising exercised by Google, Facebook and YouTube during elections in Russia, including on the day of pre-election silence, which constitutes a violation of Russian laws. Nikolai Bulayev, first deputy chairman of the Russian Central Election Commission (CEC), confirmed that many Google materials could be categorized as those used to influence voters.

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