I have heard a rumour (though I have no idea how reliable it is) that LiveJournal might have been pressured by the Russian TPTB into making cross-posting a pain in the ass. That seamless integration between LJ and DW was undesirable, from the point of view that many Russians using LJ and DW were using it for undesirable purposes. Like political expression and/or LGBT porn.
Again, I don't know for sure (it was a friend of a friend who mentioned it, not someone I know well). But given that LJ is a MUCH more popular blogging platform in Russia than in the West, and given the Kremlin's well-documented extreme hostility to both political expression and anything LGBT-related, it sounds plausible. I mean, given everything ELSE they're known to have done, I really can't put it past Putin and his ex-KGB pals. Leaning on a Russian tech company to restrict domestic access a site like DW, with its American servers, sounds right up their alley, honestly.
The rumour, of course, doesn't make me any LESS worried than I was for Russian LJ users going forward.
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Again, I don't know for sure (it was a friend of a friend who mentioned it, not someone I know well). But given that LJ is a MUCH more popular blogging platform in Russia than in the West, and given the Kremlin's well-documented extreme hostility to both political expression and anything LGBT-related, it sounds plausible. I mean, given everything ELSE they're known to have done, I really can't put it past Putin and his ex-KGB pals. Leaning on a Russian tech company to restrict domestic access a site like DW, with its American servers, sounds right up their alley, honestly.
The rumour, of course, doesn't make me any LESS worried than I was for Russian LJ users going forward.