Virtual rallies against self-isolation regime took place in Russian cities. Protesters used Yandex services

On April 20, residents of Rostov-on-Don staged a virtual rally against the self-isolation regime. To do this, they used the "Chatterbox" function in the mobile version of Yandex.Maps and Yandex.Navigator, which allows you to put a dot on the map and write a comment on it. Rostov residents put dots near the regional government building and wrote that due to the advisory nature of self-isolation, those who lost their jobs do not receive social assistance. Commentatorsdemanded either a full-fledged quarantine be introduced so that they could count on state guarantees, or the restrictions that prevent people from working be lifted. In total, several hundred protest comments appeared .

After the virtual rally, the head of the Rostov region demanded a change in the procedure for issuing passes in Rostov , which was also complained about in "Razgovorchiki". Vasily Golubev "demanded to change the work of the issuing points, increase their number, and also adjust the procedure for issuing passes in such a way that it could be done remotely, by e-mail, as much as possible," the governor's press secretary Irina Chetvertakova told "Podyom".

Following Rostov-on-Don, virtual rallies began in other Russian cities. Points with protest comments in Yandex.Maps and Yandex.Navigator appeared in Moscow , St. Petersburg , Yekaterinburg , Krasnoyarsk , Nizhny Novgorod , Saratov , Ufa , Cheboksary , Voronezh , Kazan . As in Rostov, users mainly complained about financial difficulties due to the self-isolation regime. Among the slogans were: "Either an emergency, or pay your loans and utilities yourself!", "Direct payments and real support for the population", "Down with passes", "You can't even run alone."

Later, the comments began to disappear. Yandex said that it always deletes messages that are not related to the traffic situation or contain profanity . "If there are too many such messages, the time they are displayed on the map may be automatically reduced so as not to interfere with navigation," a representative of Yandex.Navigator told Vedomosti. At the same time, dots with protest comments appeared not only in Yandex.Navigator, but also in the maps of the 2GIS service. This happened in at least two cities - Moscow and Novosibirsk.

Russians have previously expressed discontent using the "Razgovorchiki" feature , Proekt wrote in February 2020. According to the publication, in 2011-2013, "Razgovorchiki" called for people to attend rallies and spoke out against Russian President Vladimir Putin. As a former employee of the Kremlin's internal policy department told Proekt, after the authorities' appeal, Yandex began moderating "Razgovorchiki".

On April 20, Vladikavkaz hosted a real, not virtual, rally against the self-isolation regime. Several hundred city residents came out to the building of the North Ossetian administration demanding help for residents who had lost their jobs due to COVID-19 restrictions and to provide more detailed information about those infected with the coronavirus. The head of the republic, Vyacheslav Bitarov, came out to the protesters, but a full-fledged dialogue did not take place. It was decided to create an initiative group for negotiations with the authorities. A few hours later, the protesters were forced out of the square in front of the regional administration. Several participants in the rally were detained, and stones were thrown at the police.

As of the morning of April 20, more than 47 thousand cases of coronavirus have been recorded in Russia . 3,446 people have recovered, 405 have died. More than two million tests for coronavirus have been conducted in the country. Due to the epidemic, self-isolation measures have been introduced in all regions for all residents or persons of a certain category (for example, the elderly).

Olga Korelina

Photo in the announcement: "Yandex"