Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg deserves condemnation for blocking Instagram posts related to Russian journalist, Alexei Navalny’s investigation of Russian government corruption.
The block follows a Russian government demand that Navalny’s content on YouTube and Instagram be deleted.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government is especially unhappy over a Feb. 8 video by Navalny that indicates a corrupt relationship between Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko and oligarch, Oleg Deripaska. Navalny had shown that Deripaska hosted Prikhodko and at least one high-end escort on his yacht in 2016. For Putin, who proclaims a narrative of holier-than-thou public service, the image of escorts, oligarchs, and senior government officials is not an amusing one.
Nevertheless, Zuckerberg must be drawn out for special criticism here.
A potential 2020 Democratic presidential aspirant who has worked to present himself as an education and free speech advocate, Zuckerberg’s supplication to Putin is pretty remarkable.
Moreover, in his choice to betray Navalny and investigative journalism, Zuckerberg adds another feather to his fake news cap. Recall, after all, that the Facebook CEO has come under congressional pressure for his limited efforts to remove Kremlin trolls from his platforms. And recall, more damningly, that Zuckerberg defended his limited action with the excuse that removing content would represent an unacceptable affront to freedom of expression!
How times change. We’ve now seen that when Putin gets going, Zuckerberg gets kneeling.
Of course, Zuckerberg is taking a big business risk here.
While he has protected his Russian business interests (at least for the moment), he has also submitted Instagram to the will of Russian corruption. In doing so, Zuckerberg has sacrificed his brand at the altar of Kremlin idolatry. And in that, Zuckerberg has negatively stood himself apart from Google – the owner of YouTube – which has thus far refused to submit to Putin’s demands. Google recognizes that the credibility of corporate support for free expression and the commitment of Russian users to its YouTube platform is more valuable than authoritarian threats.
Zuckerberg should remember what’s at stake here — for his brand and for human freedom from bad government — and reverse course.
