DISINFO: There was widespread and blatant interference in the recent Russian election
SUMMARY
There was widespread and blatant interference in the recent Russian election, ranging from targeted recommendations and censorship by Silicon Valley to overt cyberattacks on servers coming from the US.
When I check Twitter recommendations on who to follow – of course, the first person who comes up is Navalny, who is serving a criminal sentence. Isn't this interference in the affairs of a foreign country? It's blatant interference.
RESPONSE
Disinformation message about alleged election interference which appeared in the context of Russian State Duma election 2021.
No evidence is provided to support the claims.
Twitter makes algorithm-based suggestions on accounts to follow based on contacts, activity on the platform, location, data collected by third-party websites. Twitter may include Promoted Accounts as suggestions for accounts to follow. However, as of 28 September, 2021 there is no evidence to suggest that "Silicon Valley" or the US intentionally ran ads to promote Alexei Navalny's Twitter account ahead of the Russian election.
Notably, in the past researchers have demonstrated that Russia-influenced Twitter accounts were promoting certain hashtags to sow divisions in the US. See also here and here.
Ahead of the vote in the Russian legislative election 2021, Apple and Google took down a smartphone application developed by Alexei Navalny's team, enabling voters to consolidate against the rulling party's "United Russia" candidates. Neither of the companies have commented on their decision. However according to the media reports both have faced pressure from the Russian officials:
According to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, Google faced legal demands by Russian regulators and threats of criminal prosecution of individual employees if it failed to comply. The same person said Russian police visited Google’s Moscow offices last week to enforce a court order to block the app.
Alexei Navalny is a prominent target of the Kremlin, and is currently imprisoned on politically-motivated charges. The European Union has called for his immediate and unconditional release. The EU has also imposed restrictive measures against six individuals and one entity involved in the assassination attempt on Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned with a toxic nerve agent of the “Novichok” group on 20 August 2020 in Russia.
The European Union took note of independent and reliable sources reporting serious violations in Russian State Duma, regional and local elections 2021 and expressed deep concerns over the continuous pattern of shrinking space for the opposition, civil society and independent voices across Russia. The EU called on Russia’s leadership to reverse these negative developments.
See related examples of pro-Kremlin disinformation claims, alleging that US and UK intervened in Duma elections; The West is preparing a propaganda-attack against Russia after the Duma election; US failed to discredit Russian electoral system.