Tag: business

Going back to the pop culture references, many on Twitter are making memes that show Zelensky photoshopped as various Marvel characters, including Captain America. Some people have decided he resembles actor Jeremy Renner, who plays Hawkeye in the Marvel films, and have “cast” the actor in the role of Zelensky in…I guess…a war film? “Fans cast of Jeremy Renner as Zelensky in fantasy Ukraine invasion film: Too soon?” a New York Post headline read. “Fans…. of what……..,” one person responded.

Sellers on Etsy are even getting in on the action. On the platform, you can buy mugs with Zelensky’s face on them surrounded by the colors of the Ukrainian flag, a T-shirt with a quote from the president in flowery script, another with Zelensky’s face on the famous Barack Obama “Hope” logo, or one that reads “President Zelenskyy, my hero.” Have we learned nothing from the doomed “Cuomosexual” meme? No politician needs this level of online fervor and thirst surrounding him, and Zelensky has enough on his plate. “Not sure twitter will survive a milkshake duck of this magnitude,” one person wrote in response to the hero worship.

Over on TikTok, things aren’t much better. As NPR reported over the weekend, the platform has been inundated with videos purportedly from the front lines of the conflict that actually show footage of “old conflicts, scenes from movies and even video game battles as if showing on-the-ground live footage. ”

Media Matters even called out TikTok for “facilitating” the spread

Facebook and Twitter on Friday were blocked in Russia, amid President Vladimir Putin’s ongoing military invasion of Ukraine.

In a statement issued on Friday, Roskomnadzor, the country’s communications regulator, explained the decision was made to “block access to the Facebook network” after at least 26 cases of “discrimination against Russian media and information resources” since October 2020. The agency highlighted Facebook’s recent restriction of Kremlin-tied media sources RT and Sputnik across the EU.

“Soon millions of ordinary Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information, deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and friends and silenced from speaking out,” Nick Clegg, president of global affairs for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, wrote on Twitter in response. “We will continue to do everything we can to restore our services so they remain available to people to safely and securely express themselves and organize for action.”

Hours later, Russian news agency Interfax reported that Roskomnadzor had also begun blocking Twitter. Despite the reports, a Twitter spokesperson said the company doesn’t see “anything significantly different” than throttling that had been reported earlier.

The blocks would escalate earlier restrictions on Facebook and Twitter by the Kremlin. Last week, Clegg said Russia has restricted use of the company’s services. The throttling was in response to Meta’s refusal to stop independent fact-checking of Russian state-backed media. Clegg in turn said Meta would keep its apps, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, available to Russians.

The Russian government also began throttling Twitter last week, and data