MOSCOW: Russian lawmakers on Wednesday moved a step closer to allowing regulators to block Internet platforms like Facebook and YouTube if they are deemed to have censored content produced by Russians.
Russia’s lower house of parliament, which passed draft legislation in a third reading, said in a media release that authorities can target platforms if they have been found to limit information based on nationality and language.
The lower house State Duma added that Internet websites could also be sanctioned “in the event of discrimination against the content of Russian media.”
In an explanatory note attached to the bill, the authors wrote that authorities have been receiving complaints this year from Russian media that their accounts have been censored by “foreign Internet platforms Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.”
Earlier this year the US tech giants introduced labels for state-affiliated media outlets.
The legislation now needs to get approval from the upper house Federation Council before President Vladimir Putin signs it into law — steps that are considered to be formalities.
The Kremlin in recent years has stepped up its efforts to control the Russian segment of the Internet under the pretext of combatting online extremism.
In 2018 regulators ordered the encrypted messenger service Telegram to be blocked, although those attempts were ended earlier this year after its co-founder Pavel Durov reported on steps to combat extremism.
Last week a Moscow court fined Google for not taking down online content banned by Russian authorities, the latest in a series of escalating penalties.
In February a Moscow court fined Twitter and Facebook for ignoring a Russian law requiring them to store Russian citizens’ user data inside the country.
Russia clears way to block Facebook, YouTube for ‘censorship’
https://arab.news/b8h47
Russia clears way to block Facebook, YouTube for ‘censorship’
- The Kremlin in recent years has stepped up its efforts to control the Russian segment of the Internet under the pretext of combatting online extremism
To infinity and beyond: Grendizer’s 50 years of inspiring Arabs
- 50 years after its creation, the Grendizer anime series continues to capture Arab imagination
- Arab News Japan speaks to creator Go Nagai, Middle Eastern fans and retells the story behind the UFO Robot tasked with protecting our planet
LONDON: Few cultural imports have crossed borders as unexpectedly, or as powerfully, as Grendizer, the Japanese giant robot that half a century ago became a childhood hero across the Arab world, nowhere more so than in Saudi Arabia.
Created in Japan in the mid-1970s by manga artist Go Nagai, Grendizer was part of the “mecha” tradition of giant robots. The genre was shaped by Japan’s experience during the Second World War, and explored themes of invasion, resistance and loss through the medium of science fiction.
But while the series enjoyed moderate success in Japan, its true legacy was established thousands of kilometers away in the Middle East.
The anime “UFO Robot Grendizer” arrived on television in the region in 1979, dubbed into Arabic and initially broadcast in Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war. The story it told of the heroic Duke Fleed, a displaced prince whose planet had been destroyed by alien invaders, struck a chord with children growing up amid regional conflict and occupation by Israel.
Its themes of defending one’s homeland, standing up to aggression and protecting the innocent were painfully relevant in the region, transforming the series from mere entertainment into a kind of emotional refuge.
Much of the show’s impact came from its successful Arabization. The powerful Arabic dubbing and emotionally charged voice-acting, especially by Lebanese actor Jihad El-Atrash as Duke Fleed, lent the show a moral gravity unmatched by other cartoons of the era.
The theme song for the series, performed by Sami Clark, became an anthem that the Lebanese singer continued to perform at concerts and festivals right up until his death in 2022.
By the early 1980s, “Grendizer” had spread across the Middle East, inspiring fandoms in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and beyond. For many, it was not only their first exposure to anime, it also delivered lessons on values such as justice and honor.
Grendizer was so influential in the region that it became the subject of scholarly research, which in addition to recognizing the ways in which the plight of the show’s characters resonated with the audience in the Middle East, also linked the show’s popularity to generational memories of displacement, particularly the Palestinian Nakba.
Half a century later, “Grendizer” remains culturally alive and relevant in the region. In Saudi Arabia, which embraced the original version of the show wholeheartedly, Manga Productions is now introducing a new generation of fans to a modernized version of the character, through a video game, The Feast of The Wolves, which is available in Arabic and eight other languages on platforms including PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, and a new Arabic-language anime series, “Grendizer U,” which was broadcast last year.
Fifty years after the debut of the show, “Grendizer” is back — although to a generation of fans of the original series, their shelves still full of merchandise and memorabilia, it never really went away.
