Belarus bans social media group of jailed opposition leader

May 23, BPN. Belarusian courts declared several groups on the Odnoklassniki social network “extremist content” on May 17, according to today’s update of the interior ministry’s online register.

The new entries include the group of Viktar Babaryka, the jailed banker and philanthropist who planned to run against Alaksandr Łukašenka in 2020. His whereabouts and condition have been unknown since April 28.

Other blacklisted groups are Žyvie Biełaruś, Łukašenka Go Away, Belarusian National Congress and Novy Čas. The online community of the Center for Belarusian Solidarity, the Telegram channels Dziońnik Ekstremista and Anarcho-Communist Combat Organization, and the YouTube-channel of blogger Taćciana Martynava were also outlawed.

Analysts say that the Belarusian government suppresses opposition social media because it sees them as a threat to its authoritarian rule and a source of information for the pro-democracy movement, which was empowered by the 2020 post-election protests.