The maneuvers of digital platforms against Russian disinformation and in support of the Ukrainian population continue. While Facebook makes it known that it has dismantled theyet another network of fake or compromised accounts built to spread the Kremlin narrative on the group’s social networks – 40 accounts, pages and groups closed only in the last 48 hours – Google suspends some features of Maps.
Alphabet, the holding company that controls Big G, confirmed on Sunday that it has temporarily disabled some of the tools in Ukraine that provide real-time information on traffic conditions It is on crowding of places. Features that in peacetime are obviously very useful for finding alternative routes to traffic jams or deciding to go to an area at a quieter time but in a scenario like the Ukrainian one – where citizens are tampering with road signs to disorient Russian troops who advance to major cities – can provide valuable information to the enemy forces engaged in the invasion.
The choice, explains Google, was made “after having also consulted the regional authorities”, So this is a request that has obviously come from the Ukrainian government. Among the exponents of the executive, one of the most active in terms of requests to the big names in technology is the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorovto which Elon Musk also gave another reassurance on Twitter: the satellite internet connection made possible by the satellites of Starlink is active in the country and will be strengthened.
A few hours ago Fedorov instead thanked Nick Clegg, the former British deputy prime minister and for years at the top of Menlo Park, for the various measures implemented by the US group (they are listed here) including, in fact, the latest operation that defused the fake account network. According to Clegg, those same accounts are also operational on Twitter, YouTube, Telegram and on the Russian platforms Odnoklassniki and VK. The war, even on social networks, is still long.