Ukraine war: Russians kept in the dark by internet search - BBC

In galore places, searching the web is simply a gateway to a wider satellite of information, but successful Russia, it is portion of a strategy that helps trap radical successful an alternate reality.

The results helium got backmost shocked him.

"The sources that ranked astatine the apical of the leafage were unusual and obscure," helium told the BBC. "There was 1 blog by an chartless writer claiming that the accusation astir casualties was fake."

The Kremlin keeps a choky grip connected the country's media, particularly TV, which glorifies Russia's penetration of Ukraine arsenic a ngo of liberation and dismisses reports of atrocities arsenic fake.

The net successful Russia was for a agelong clip the main abstraction for alternate sources of information, but aft starting the warfare successful February the Kremlin launched a crackdown connected autarkic online media.

Digital rights watchdog Roskomsvoboda estimates that - successful the archetypal six months of the struggle - astir 7,000 websites were blocked successful Russia, including those of large autarkic media and quality rights groups.

BBC Monitoring wanted to find retired what radical successful Russia spot erstwhile they hunt the web now.

We utilized a virtual backstage web (VPN), truthful it would look arsenic though we were searching the web from Russia.

Between June and October, we carried retired dozens of searches connected Russia's apical hunt engines - Yandex and Google - for cardinal words relating to the warfare successful Ukraine.

Yandex is 1 of the large stars of Russia's homegrown tech scene. It runs the country's largest hunt motor and presents itself arsenic autarkic of the authorities.

According to the company's ain statistics, it handles astir 60% of web searches done successful Russia - with Google liable for astir 35%.

From the commencement of the war, Yandex faced disapproval for the pro-Kremlin slant of the sites and stories featured connected its quality aggregator, Yandex News. In September, it sold Yandex News to the Kremlin-linked proprietor of societal web VK.

But Yandex retains power of its wide hunt engine, and here, the results of BBC Monitoring's experimentation uncover an alternate world dominated by Russian propaganda astir the war.

One taxable searched for was Bucha, the Ukrainian municipality wherever hundreds of civilians were killed by Russian troops earlier they withdrew successful aboriginal April.

When we searched for Bucha connected Yandex - utilizing a VPN arsenic if based successful Russia and typing successful Russian - the apical leafage of results made it look similar the killings had ne'er taken place.

Three of the 9 apical results were anonymous blog posts denying the engagement of Russian troops. The remaining six contained nary autarkic reporting of the events.

The find of wide burial sites successful October successful the municipality of Lyman, aft it was retaken from Russian forces, was besides reflected connected Yandex from a pro-Kremlin viewpoint. Several pro-Kremlin quality stories blaming the deaths connected Ukrainian "Nazis" were successful the apical 10 results.

Searching for "Ukraine" connected the hunt motor successful the aforesaid mode besides produced results heavy slanted towards the Kremlin's narrative.

Four of the 9 first-page results linked to pro-Kremlin quality outlets, and nary to autarkic media.

Glimpses of autarkic reporting lone occasionally appeared successful Yandex hunt results with links to Wikipedia articles oregon YouTube.

Asked to remark by the BBC, Yandex said its hunt successful Russia "displays contented [that is] disposable connected the internet, excluding sites which are blocked by the [media] regulator". It denied determination was immoderate "human interference" successful ranking results.

So what happens if you power from Yandex to Russia's second-largest hunt engine, Google?

Searching connected the US-based company's hunt motor with our VPN acceptable to a Russian location, and typing successful Russian, inactive brought up pro-Kremlin media outlets, but mixed with immoderate autarkic and Western sources.

Even much autarkic sources appeared erstwhile we searched Google with the VPN acceptable arsenic though we were successful the UK, though inactive typing successful Russian. There were plentifulness of results covering either the civilian deaths oregon the war.

Google told the BBC that its hunt "reflects the contented that is disposable connected the unfastened web", and its algorithm is trained to "prominently aboveground precocious prime accusation from reliable sources".

So wherefore did Yandex's hunt results disagree truthful overmuch from Google's?

Several specialists the BBC spoke to said they believed it was improbable that large-scale manipulation was taking spot from wrong Yandex, arsenic this would beryllium excessively analyzable to do.

One anticipation is that the company's results are simply being skewed by the Kremlin's crackdown connected autarkic reporting of the invasion.

Because thousands of websites person been blocked by Russia's media regulator, immense swathes of accusation bash not look successful Yandex's hunt results.

"They [the authorities] tin cleanse the results completely," Alexei Sokirko, a erstwhile Yandex developer, told the BBC.

At the aforesaid time, the Kremlin is spending heavy to marque definite web contented is created reflecting its ain worldview, helium added.

Search experts Guido Ampollini and Mykhailo Orlov, from the selling steadfast GA Agency, accidental this volition besides perchance skew the results users spot successful Yandex, arsenic the hunt engine's algorithm whitethorn reward pro-Kremlin worldly with higher rankings and down-rank alternate views.

Could utilizing a VPN assistance Russians find retired much astir the warfare successful their ain language?

If they are utilizing Yandex to find that information, past not necessarily.

When searching its motor with the VPN acceptable to the UK and utilizing Russian, the unusual autarkic root appeared, but pro-Kremlin sources inactive dominated.

Mr Ampollini and Mr Orlov accidental the pro-Kremlin contented appears cautiously tailored to marque the algorithm fertile it higher.

And with 1 obscure quality tract that featured prominently successful results, they besides recovered signs of imaginable web postulation manipulation.

A ample fig of perchance artificial links to the tract were recovered from outer websites - a communal method to amended a site's hunt ranking.

Finally, Yandex whitethorn beryllium reflecting the information Russian users themselves are choosing pro-Kremlin content.

Search specializer Nick Boyle, of integer selling bureau The Audit Lab, told the BBC that - dissimilar Google - Yandex takes into relationship idiosyncratic behaviour.

This means, for example, that a website's hunt ranking whitethorn beryllium affected by the fig of visits to it. Google says this is not the lawsuit for its hunt engine.

The GA Agency squad thought it imaginable that galore Russians are clicking connected contented that portrays their subject positively, prompting Yandex's algorithm to reward it with higher rankings.

Lev Gershenzon believes that, nary substance however the Kremlin's dominance of Yandex's hunt results has been achieved, it means that anyone wanting to question what they perceive connected authorities media volition lone get accusation confirming the authoritative view.

"You unfastened the Yandex main leafage and you commencement [searching for the] Kremenchuk [attack] to person immoderate alternate representation from different sources, and each you get is that 'yeah ok, you're right, it's fake' - and that's it," helium told the BBC. "It's similar a treble punch."