Putin: State authorities must be able to influence social media

State authorities must be able to influence the operation of social media platforms in their countries to ensure security, Russian President Vladimir Putin said, Interfax reported.

To illustrate his point, Putin cited the riots that swept through France.

“French leaders also acknowledge that social media are influencing the events currently unfolding in major French cities. They have little or no ability to influence how social media platforms operate in their country,” he said.

He also noted that, at the height of the crisis in Iran, events unfolding on the streets were largely fueled by social media platforms that the Iranian authorities did not manage or control.

Putin stressed that if a country “does not have full sovereignty in the information sphere, then it has no sovereignty at all.”

“In the modern world, this is impossible — let me make that clear. But I do not want to offer any political assessments right now; let us set political judgments aside altogether. However, what happened on the streets of Tehran during the crisis was largely instigated through social media platforms that the Iranian authorities did not manage or control,” the Russian president said.

According to Putin, the Iranian authorities had only one option: “to shut everything down.”