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Editors: Ilan Berman and Emma Gargiulo
RUSSIA'S ANSWER TO WHATSAPP
In an effort to compete with popular foreign communication apps like WhatsApp and Telegram, Russia is planning to launch its own state-run instant messaging platform. Already drawing comparisons to China's wildly popular WeChat platform, this homegrown messenger will host several government services unavailable to competitors and aim to facilitate document storage, messaging, banking, and other public and commercial services. After President Vladimir Putin endorsed legislation authorizing the super-app's development in late May, it has been decided that the platform will incorporate a messenger built by VK, the company responsible for Russia's most popular social network, vKontakte.
The effort represents another step forward in Russia's ongoing attempts to assert control over the country's informational infrastructure, a strategy the Kremlin has billed as "digital sovereignty." The push to replace foreign tech platforms with domestic alternatives became even more urgent after multiple Western companies withdrew from the Russian market following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but implementation has lagged. The new push for a domestic app is thus a belated effort to reduce dependence on foreign-owned messaging services. Russian authorities have already blocked Meta's Facebook and the X social media platform from operating within the country, and this app, once launched, will presumably allow them to exclude other foreign digital services as well. (Bloomberg, June 26, 2025)
BISHKEK VERSUS PRESS FREEDOM
Long regarded as a "relative haven for press freedom in Central Asia," Kyrgyzstan has stood out in a region dominated by authoritarian governments with a tight grip on the media. Despite periods of political upheaval and an unstable economy, the country has remained largely committed to the survival of independent journalism and a comparatively vibrant civil society. However, this openness is now coming under attack. On June 25th, the Kyrgyz parliament approved a controversial bill that significantly strengthens state control over the country's media, with the legislation stipulating that "all new websites must register with a state-authorised body, while the government acquires the power to grant and revoke licenses as it deems fit."
The bill comes amid broader democratic backsliding since current President Sadyr Jarapov assumed power in late 2020. Over the past half decade, Japarov's government has expanded presidential power and repression of political opposition, and critics warn that the new legislation – which Japarov is widely expected to enact – will further erode media freedoms. (Reuters, June 26, 2025)
IRAN'S "SHADOW WAR" ON THE UK...
According to the Telegraph, Iran is now waging a "shadow war" against the United Kingdom in an extensive covert campaign that goes far beyond sanctions violations. In addition to conducting illicit financial activity within the country, Tehran is reportedly spreading online disinformation and propaganda in an effort to sow division and undermine public trust. The campaign is said to leverage a network known as "Storm-2035" to publish content on contentious issues and posting online propaganda messaging in support of Scottish independence. Both types of social media activity have been linked to broader attempts to exploit domestic divisions in the UK.
In response, the British government has placed Iran on the highest tier of the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS). As part of this designation, the UK will require anyone acting on Iran's behalf to register or face up to five years in prison. Iran is the first state to be placed on this enhanced tier. However, "responses have so far not matched the scale of the challenge" now being posed by Iran, the paper warns. (Iran International, July 1, 2025)
...AND ONLINE ANTI-ISRAEL ARMY
In mid-June, Israel (and subsequently the U.S.) launched a surprise attack on Iran's key military and nuclear facilities. Since then, a Tehran-linked bot network has saturated X with antisemitic and anti-Israel posts in an effort to weaken U.S. support for military action against Tehran, according to a new report from Israel's Diaspora Ministry. Flooding key wartime hashtags, hundreds of coordinated fake accounts have targeted American users by branding Israel a "terrorist state" and accusing a "Jewish lobby" of coercing Washington into the conflict.
With alleged links to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the bot army includes dozens of fake profiles posing as progressive activists, "America-first" Republicans, and even anti-Israel Jewish users. All of the accounts, many posting thousands of times a day and exhibiting numerous signs of bot activity, have "recycled identical slogans, shared AI-generated images of alleged Israeli atrocities, and amplified fringe voices hostile to Israel," the study details. (Jerusalem Post, July 1, 2025)
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