Putin’s Facebook

The only place where dissidents in Russia can still express themselves is Facebook. It’s their only public platform and they use it not to post photos of pretty kitties or share inane slogans about the importance of smiling but to publish long, interesting analytical articles on political subjects. As a result, Russian-language Facebook is the most interesting Facebook of all. 

Of course, Russian authorities are unhappy about this development. They are smart, though, and quickly learned to use the very American nature of Facebook’s policies against the dissidents. The way that Facebook works is that if a thousand people complain that you microaggressed against them with a post that says nothing but “Good morning”, Facebook will ban you, no questions asked. So thousands of Putinbots file complaints about the pain and suffering entirely anodyne posts by dissidents supposedly caused them, and Facebook immediately bans the dissidents. 

Facebook is trying so hard to be apolitical and avoid choosing sides that it has become very easy to use to silence opposition. The illusion that one can remain outside of politics is very dangerous because if you don’t choose your politics, somebody will choose it for you.