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Moscow's federal treasury revealed on Tuesday that an extra seven billion rubles will be handed over to the Institute for the Development of the Internet by the end of the year, taking its funding to a total of 10 billion rubles (over $135 million).
That cash, the authorities say, will be used to bankroll "the production of state-backed content, including material aimed at the formation of civic identity and spiritual and moral values among young people." The institute has described its mission as acting as an interface between the government and internet giants, and shaping the formation of the online world in Russia.
President Vladimir Putin has previously expressed concern about the potential for youngsters to encounter harmful content online, with little accountability being shown by tech firms. Speaking to a group of teachers in February, Putin said that "these platforms are, of course, primarily businesses ... and what is the primary concern of a business? Making a profit. They don't care if this content or that content causes harm for the people at whom it is directed. After all, these modern IT companies are more and more beginning to control people's consciousness."
The national media regulator, Roskomnadzor, has had a series of standoffs with American social media giants in recent months, going as far as to slow down Twitter's server speeds in the country over claims it was acting too slowly to remove prohibited content. Posts flagged by officials are said to have included calls for minors to commit suicide, others glamorizing of drug use, and material promoting unauthorized protests during the Covid-19 pandemic. The US firms initially said the orders constituted a threat to free speech, but are understood to have since begun working with Moscow to meet the requirements of Russian law.
Young people's interactions online again came under scrutiny in May, when 19-year-old Ilnaz Galyaviev carried out a mass shooting at his former school in the Russian city of Kazan, killing seven students and two teachers. In a series of online posts in the lead-up to the bloody slaying, he announced, "I am like a God." Just days later, a second school, this time in Russia's Far East, was searched by police after a student threatened in a message online to perpetrate a copycat attack.
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R.C.
Two Afterschool animations, I found interesting, one concerns the words of Aldous Huxkley, spoken in 1962, and closing by George Orwell.
[Link] Love Your Servitude - Aldous Huxley & George Orwell
And this
[Link] MASS PSYCHOSIS - How an Entire Population Becomes MENTALLY ILL
In this video we are going to explore the most dangerous of all psychic epidemics, the mass psychosis. A mass psychosis is an epidemic of madness and it occurs when a large portion of a society loses touch with reality and descends into delusions. Such a phenomenon is not a thing of fiction. Two examples of mass psychoses are the American and European witch hunts 16th and 17th centuries and the rise of totalitarianism in the 20th century.In this video we are going to explore the most dangerous of all psychic epidemics, the mass psychosis. A mass psychosis is an epidemic of madness and it occurs when a large portion of a society loses touch with reality and descends into delusions. Such a phenomenon is not a thing of fiction. Two examples of mass psychoses are the American and European witch hunts 16th and 17th centuries and the rise of totalitarianism in the 20th century.
I am on the downward slope, according the biblical prophecy, Three score years and ten,.
I guess, I am someone that, has difficulty with the reading error, a glitch in the machine!
Because, despite my greying hair, I am not blind, can see reality,, OSIT. My hearing is pretty good, and thank god, I am not dumb. At least i can post on SOTT, for now.
Gibbons v. Hedgehog. [Link] New: Raccoon Federation Executive Council meeting. [Link]
RC