In 2020, Navalnaya’s late husband Alexei was poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent, for which he was hospitalized.
The anti-Putin activist died in February of this year at the age of 47 in a Siberian prison.
Navalny pointed out that technology companies are too willing to follow the dictates of authoritarian regimes. According to him, “dictators have passed laws designed to destroy civil rights, and tech companies are following those laws without question.”
According to the activist, the legal representatives of the companies argue that if they want to operate in a country, they must comply with the laws of that country, and they see no room for debate.
He called the practice of California lawyers blocking a tactical voting app at an official Russian request, despite what clearly amounts to censorship, particularly troubling. Navalnaya emphasized that, in this case, the interests of the users took a backseat to the demands of the authorities.
Is Apple following Putin’s instructions?
On the stage of the Web Summit, Navalnaya also provided a concrete example of the objectionable practices of technology companies.
“Apple has removed nearly 400 VPN apps from its store in the last three months”
he said, strongly implying that this was done at the behest of the Russian state, which has labeled VPNs as “extremist technology.”
“Apple simply followed the order. No one knocked on their door, they were not threatened.
Some lawyers in the California office saw an official document with a Russian state seal and followed the instruction.
It didn’t matter if it was censorship, if it restricted freedom, or if it was illegal – the state seal was enough to make it happen,” Navalnaya said. He added that he could give many more such examples.
It calls for a fight against dictatorships
According to Navalnaya, technology develops better in a free world and there is a larger market for new technologies.
At the end of the day, it is in the best interest of all IT leaders to… have no dictatorships in the world, and in their best interest to help – or at least not hinder – those who are fighting dictatorships
he said. According to the activist, tech companies do not act this way out of malice, but rather out of laziness or ignorance. “I don’t think there’s malice here, it’s more about laziness – and not wanting to understand that it’s very easy to hide behind the phrase ‘follow local laws,’ whatever they are,” he explained.
Julia Navalnaya at the Web Summit in Portugal
Cover: Getty Images / Corbis, Horace Villalobos
He added: “It’s convenient, but it doesn’t work. Local laws can require a woman to be stoned for showing her face, or someone can be sentenced to 15 years in prison just for calling an aggressive war a crime.”
Navalnaya’s position on the war in Ukraine
In response to a question from a Ukrainian participant at the conference, Navalnaya expressed a firm position regarding the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. “I’m against this war … I can’t believe that there are people who come on stage and ask me – the widow of the man who was the loudest in Russia – whether I support the war or not,” he said.
He emphasized that he makes his position clear in every speech:
“I think this war should be stopped immediately. All Russian teams must return to Russia, and that should not happen today – it should have happened yesterday.”
The activist also called for support for anti-war activists jailed in Russia, who are often convicted for things as small as liking anti-war comments or writing “No to war” on paper. “With their support, we bring closer the day when the war ends,” he concluded.
We previously presented the circumstances of Alexei Navalny’s death in more detail, which you can read more about by clicking here.
Source: www.economx.hu
