A prominent Wikipedia editor was recently arrested in Belarus for “distributing fake anti-Russian information”. However, it wasn't specified what "fake anti-Russian information" Mark Bernstein had shared. His arrest by the Main Directorate for Combating Organised Crime and Corruption of Belarus (GUBOPiK) comes a week after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law according to which a person can be sentenced for 15 years for spreading “fake news”.

Ukrainian authorities have said that Belarus is working in cahoots with the Kremlin and the country has offered logistical support throughout the Russian invasion. They add that Belarus may be planning to join the invasion with its own military as well. The arrest of Bernstein, who has made over 200,000 edits to Russian Wikipedia articles, isn't a standalone instance. Since the start of the invasion, the Kremlin has built a virtual propaganda wall to ensure that Russians only get to know Putin's version of the truth.

While the Russian media was already state-controlled, the country has also put checks on several other platforms from where free voices could break through. For instance, Russia's communications agency Roskomnadzor has banned the use of Facebook and Instagram in the country, cutting off 80 million users from the service.

According to Roskomnadzor, these platforms are allowing people to upload information containing "calls for violence against Russian citizens". A statement issued in this regard read, "Messages are circulating on the Instagram social network encouraging and provoking violent acts against Russians, in connection with which the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office demanded that Roskomnadzor restrict access to this social network."

To counter this ban on the two most popular Meta services, several people outside of Russia have started using unconventional platforms to make Russians aware of the ground reality. For instance, there have been several cases where men outside of Russia have changed their location to Moscow to tell the women there about the war. Similarly, several others have been using spaces like Google Review and Google Maps to post messages which give an account of the conflict that differs from the Kremlin's version. The motive is simple -- if Russians learn the truth about the Ukraine war, they may rise in protest and force Putin to take a step back.

Many of these activists were surprised to find out that Russians were being presented with a completely different picture of the war. Firstly, for Russians, it isn't a war but a “special military operation”. Besides, the Russian media only shows their troops handing out aid and never shows them blowing residential buildings. According to several think tanks and media outlets, the Kremlin's narrative is sticking as an overwhelming majority of Russians believe that their army is only targeting Ukraine's military infrastructure in “precision” strikes.

However, even these small-scale efforts to create some awakening in Russia are being dealt with by the Russian authorities. In fact, these tech platforms also don't allow their services to be used as vehicles to counter Russian propaganda. While Tinder has reportedly banned several accounts that were using the platform to further an "anti-Russian propaganda", Google Maps has temporarily blocked new reviews for sites in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainians are trying to reach out to Russians en masse by leveraging two of the country’s most popular platforms -- Telegram and YouTube. The tactic was initiated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky himself when he posted a selfie video in Russian saying, "You are told this flame

Nevertheless, even these tactics will only remain effective till the time Russians are being allowed to use the platforms (like Tinder, Google Maps, Telegram, and YouTube) that act as bridges and help them interact with people who don’t see the same propaganda they do. Given the way the Kremlin is regulating information, the fate of these platforms in Russia also looks uncertain.

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(Edited by : Thomas Abraham)