A Kiev sociologist predicts serious consequences of the ban on Russian social networks for Poroshenko and Co.
Blocking Russian sites will significantly affect the rating of the Ukrainian authorities.
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This forecast was made by sociologist Irina Bekeshkina in an interview with the Kyiv publication Gordon.
“I think that for the Ukrainian authorities the electoral consequences of the ban on VKontakte and Odnoklassniki will be quite serious. In most cases, these social networks were used by those who are not supporters of the current leadership of Ukraine. Blocking social networks will only convince them that they are right. It was worthwhile to carefully calculate the consequences,” noted Bekeshkina.
In her opinion, ordinary Internet users will suffer from the ban
“In general, I have a contradictory attitude towards blocking VKontakte and Odnoklassniki in Ukraine. On the one hand, these are logical, even belated actions by our government, since these are the Internet platforms that were largely used for Russian propaganda. On the other hand, many ordinary Internet users who have nothing to do with Kremlin propaganda will suffer,” the sociologist emphasized.
She does not exclude that blocking Russian sites may be ineffective.
“I understand: in war conditions, the ban on Russian social networks is also a method of struggle. But the question is: how effective and competent is it? It seems to me that it was worthwhile to prepare society for this step in advance, explain to people what exactly this is connected with, give them time to move on and become familiar with other Internet resources. I’m afraid that the Ukrainian authorities did not calculate the consequences of such an unexpected ban,” Bekeshkina concluded.
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