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Media: Russia's state censor to track Putin memes with help of AI

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Russia's federal agency for monitoring and censoring communications, Roskomnadzor, is planning to use AI to try to track online posts, comments and memes critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a report by Russian investigative outlet iStories.

A leak of more than 2 million documents from Roskomnadzor, reported by iStories, German newspaper Suddeutche Zeitung and other partners, revealed that the agency was tasked with being Putin's personal watchdog, dedicated to tracking down anyone criticizing the president. Information from the agency will be passed on to Putin's administration and Russian law enforcement bodies.

The report stated that a unit of over 1,000 employees within Roskomnadzor specializes in tracking content ranging from speculations about Putin's health to memes that mock the Russian leader.

According to the report, developers have begun training neural networks to recognize such content, to improve their efficiency at tracking it down.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Roskomnadzor has blocked 125,000 pieces of content about Russia's war on Ukraine and adjacent topics as of January, according to the report.

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The Kyiv Independent news desk

We are the news team of the Kyiv Independent. We are here to make sure our readers get quick, essential updates about the events in Ukraine. Feel free to contact us via email with feedback and news alerts.

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Along the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, the front line has remained largely static, but fighting continues every day. The Kyiv Independent’s Francis Farrell and Olena Zashko embedded with Ukraine’s forces in Kherson Oblast, following FPV drone and night bomber teams tasked with defending river islands.

Earlier on Jan. 1, Volodymyr Saldo, a Ukrainian politician turned top Russian proxy head of Russian-occupied parts of Kherson Oblast, accused Kyiv of launching three drones at a hotel and a cafe on the Black Sea coast. Saldo claimed that the alleged New Year drone strike on the village of Khorly killed 24 people, including a child, and wounded more than 50.

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