SixApart Sells LiveJournal to Russian Media Company

molrak writes "SixApart tonight announced the sale of journal/blogging service Livejournal to Russia-based SUP. Original LJ founder Brad Fitzpatrick has chimed in on the situation: 'This is pretty cool because - They're ridiculously excited about LiveJournal, and have been for awhile (they previous purchased advertising rights in Russia, but ended up doing a bunch of Russia-specific LJ development as well). They want to throw a lot of resources at LiveJournal in terms of product development and engineers. "LiveJournal.com, Inc." now stands alone again, focusing on nothing but LJ. Sounds like I'll have more LJ influence (via new role as advisory board member) than I've had recently.'"

Putinist Russia

[Clay Pigeon -TPF-VS-]

Does this mean that any anti-Putin blogging will be noted and passed on to the "proper" authorities?

Hmmm

[Zouden]

I predict that 50% of the comments here will be thinly-veiled racial attacks on Russia.
The other 50% will be "in soviet russia" jokes, of course...

Re:Hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

I predict that 50% of the comments here will be thinly-veiled racial attacks on Russia.

Criticizing Russia's government and corruption isn't a racial attack, unless you're criticizing the fact that they're White.

Editorial Controls?

[Bieeanda]

So, um. What kind of a corporate culture are these guys bringing in? Given the readiness with which the Putin government has been putting the boots to dissension (particularly in terms of media), I have to worry (because I don't have all the information) that increasingly Draconian laws over there might spill over into how the LJ TOS is adjudicated in general.

Filtering and Censorship

[Macgrrl]

What will be interesting to see is whether the filtering and censorship of LJ will be more or less stringent than it was previously.

Earlier this year we had uproar due to fanfic heavy accounts being blocked and assorted accusations regarding slashfic being porn and potentially kiddie porn in the case of Harry Potter fic.

I wonder if moving out of the US juristriction for the 'publisher' will affect the degree in which copyright violations are pursued.

Re:Hmmm

[willyhill]

Please, define a "thinly veiled racial attack" for us, so we'll know when a joke about a country becomes a racist insult, in your opinion. For example, if I make a funny about how the Swiss eat lots of cheese, would that be construed as a racial attack on all Swiss?

I'm trying to figure out how you'd devolve a discussion into "racial attacks" on a country like Russia on a web site where the vast majority of people are likely caucasian or European descent.

Or maybe you meant something else, like nationalist flamebait and so on? Because that I can believe.

BTW, I hear Putin won 99.99421% of the vote yesterday, give or take a few uncorruptible precincts. You guys must be very democratic... <grin> [*]

.

[*] I hope that wasn't racial...

Re:Putinist Russia

[fm6]

Alexander Mamut, one of SUP's main investors (or possibly its owner -- I've seen both descriptions in articles), apparently has some ties to Putin

Nowadays, there ane two kinds of Russian businessmen: those with ties to Putin, and those that are out of business. Basically, they're back to the state running the economy.

Re:Putinist Russia

[kot_ivanovich]

The current level of Access SUP (which is definitely a KGB-backed company, given the personalities involved) has to LJ already allows them to monitor and to report LJ activity. My guess is that this purchase is more of the order of psychological pressure: "Look, we can win the elections with any score we want, we can beat up and jail opposition activists and we also can buy the last independent media outlet in the country (because this is what LJ became in Russia). Got the hint?"

Re:Putinist Russia

[QuickFox]

It'll still be more free than it would be here.

Not at all. Not by a long shot.

The US may have sunk into becoming a harsh Big-Brother nation that is effectively ruled by two wings of a single party, but Russia is run by their local mafia.

In the US you still have lots of TV channels and papers and forums loudly critical of the reigning system, in Russia such voices are systematically silenced. In the US your government may be shamelessly lying to you about important matters like reasons for war and reasons for what they call anti-terror measures, but dissenting voices do get heard, even if they drown in the general noise. In Russia dissent is silenced for real.

In Russia it is too late. In the US it is not too late. Not yet. There's still time for you people to do something, should you wish to do something about it.

Re:First it was China...

[rednip]

First it was China...now, it's Russia. Guys, the Russians are coming! These two countries are gobbling up our [American] companies fast!

Welcome to the weak dollar. Newly rich former adversaries are buying into our economy, both Germany and Japan did the same thing in the 80's. Might be a good thing for our (American) economy, might be (another) problem, however fresh capital is rarely a bad thing.

Re:doesn't SUP = KGB?

[Zibblsnrt]

In 2006, when SUP was put in charge of handling LJ's Russian userbase (which was defined, if I remember correctly, as "everyone in the former Soviet Union or anyone who blogged in Cyrillic at all"), there were howls of rage from the Russian community for that specific reason. "SUP = FSB" was a pretty common refrain in comments of the announcement.

Considering a lot of Russian LJ users were on the site precisely because it was, if not completely out of Moscow's reach, at least more difficult to readily get at, I can understand why they'd be furious about that - and moreso about this.

Re:Putinist Russia

[Ilgaz]

Alexander Mamut, one of SUP's main investors (or possibly its owner -- I've seen both descriptions in articles), apparently has some ties to Putin

Nowadays, there ane two kinds of Russian businessmen: those with ties to Putin, and those that are out of business. Basically, they're back to the state running the economy.

Is there a single American business guy who is fundementally against George W. Bush and successful?

Don't give Soros example since it is clear that he is playing some "bad cop" game serving interests of USA and CIA with his "open society" (!) thing.

Is there a single high end business guy who will hang up the phone if president of USA calls? What would happen if he does?

I am not defending Putin, I am just saying it is how the entire planet in this economic/political system works.

Re:Putinist Russia

[ubernostrum]

It'll still be more free than it would be here.

In the US, if you loudly criticize the government you won't be heard because a finely-tuned media machine will just shout louder. In Russia, if you loudly criticize the government you won't be heard because you'll disappear.

In the US, the president belongs to an "old boys network" of guys who were in the same secret fraternity in their college days. In Russia, the president belongs to an "old boys network" of guys who were in the same secret police agency in the Soviet days.

In the US, journalists who uncover serious government misconduct get yelled at by Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh. In Russia, journalists who uncover serious government misconduct get injected with lethal doses of radioactive material.

Now. You were saying?

ZheZhe, Russian media rules

[migstradamus]

Came to this late, so not sure if anyone who actually knows anything about LiveJournal in Russia or the Russian media has posted above. LiveJournal IS blogging in Russia, almost literally. Its acronym ZheZhe, for ZhivoiZhurnal, is what blogs are called generically. It has also proven relatively influential in a country where the television and major print media are under strict Kremlin control. Not as in the old Pravda days of one message one source, but with set themes to promote (temnyki), blacklists, and a long list of unmentionable topics.

Less than 20% of the Russian population is online, but outbreaks of support for otherwise ignored cases on LiveJournal have actually made it to mainstream prominence. Liberal groups (and others) have used it for organizing. All this was more than enough to set off the alarm bells of the Kremlin media masters. There have already been many cases of direct repression of bloggers and other web presences online (not just on ) using the broad extremism act. The Kremlin is wary of broader action because they don't want to make enemies of the active Russian internet community.

That's not the Putin model anyway, while what just happened to LiveJournal is exactly that. The annoying and/or potentially useful media entity is acquired by someone with tight Kremlin connections. Disloyal staff are replaced. Slowly or quickly, negative content about Putin and his administration disappears. Discussion is allowed as long as it doesn't cross the invisible line. The Putin regime has raised this to an art form, studying how the authoritarian governments of Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine were toppled (all with a similar blueprint) and taking preventative action. The internet wasn't really much of a factor in those cases but with the increased penetration these days the Kremlin isn't taking any chances. They won't care about blogs not in Russian. Intimidation and a chilling effect is the point. The best repression is the kind you don't have to back up.

Despite its overwhelming control, the Putin power structure is brittle and they have to figure out how to transition this power monopoly come the March 2, 2008 presidential elections. It's no coincidence that this move "against" LiveJournal comes now. It was a potential loose end that can now be bullied, or snipped off if necessary. Notices go out to all publishers/editors/reporters/users telling them they must comply with all laws, including the extremely vague act against extremism the regime uses to confiscate materials and harass critics across the country.

The internet in Russia is in a precarious state. If it were more widespread and more heavily used as alternative media it would attract the Kremlin attention it has largely escaped so far. Other than the DDOS attacks opposition sites are hit by on a regular basis. (A la the Estonian sites during their diplomatic row with Russia. Our Russian sites kasparov.ru and namarsh.ru get hammered regularly.)

The optimists and Putin apologists inside and outside of Russia have been proven wrong again and again. Of course he won't... and he does. He doesn't care how something looks to the West as long as it doesn't affect his bottom line and the grasp on power. They have a huge amount of money at stake, the only thing he and his gang really care about. LiveJournal is just another piece in the game.

Saludos, Mig Greengard

Editor, http://theotherrussia.org/ [theotherrussia.org]

Re:Hmmm

[Anonymous Coward]

"Is there a "Russian race"?"

Yes, definitely. They are an inferior race, that must not ever be confused with us Europeans, the true Master Race.

Re:ZheZhe, Russian media rules

[eulernet]

Don't forget that they have access to all the IP logs.
Since they are able to locate people from their IP, they will be able to find the people behind the blogs (I'll let you guess what they do to their opponents).

It's a known manipulation technique used by Scientologists: never defend, always attack.
When you cannot shut your opponents, keep attacking them. If you have more resources, the opponent will eventually break or stop.

It's a sad day for Russia's democracy, and democracy in general.

Re:Putinist Russia

[Wdomburg]

Ever heard of Google? 98% of employee contributions are to Democrats, and Google's founder has been a frequent contributor to the Democratic party. I think they qualify as successful.