Google Docs blocked files with Smart Voting recommendations

Google Docs, a document exchange service, has blocked files with Smart Voting recommendations for Russian Internet users. About this on Twitter reported supporter of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and former director of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Ivan Zhdanov.

Navalny’s team created two new documents.

This week, even before the September 17-19 elections, internet users reported problems accessing docs.google.com. Roskomsvoboda noted that they began after the publication of the Smart Voting lists on docs.google.com.

The GlobalCheck project confirmed that docs.google.com has begun to block providers MTS, Megafon and Rostelecom in some regions. By the morning of September 16, docs.google.com blocking had stopped, reported Mediazona.

On the evening of September 18, YouTube blocked video with Smart Voting recommendations. And on September 17, Apple and Google removed the Navalny app from their stores. According to media reports, Google removed the app after threatening to open criminal charges against company employees.

Smart Voting bots are also not available on Telegram. The creator of the messenger Pavel Durov first criticized the decision of Apple and Google to remove the Navalny application, and then announced on the suspension of the work of bots related to the election campaign.

The site of “Smart Voting” has been blocked since the beginning of September.