Free speech may still be alive and well in Russia, but it continues to be under assault. Russia’s number one search engine Yandex is the latest media outlet to bow to government pressure to squelch the voice of dissent. With so many most read blog posts critical of Russia’s government, this comes as no surprise.

Yandex, the country’s leading search engine, has announced plans to stop ranking popular blog posts after several entries exposed problems that embarrassed government officials.

The looming change stirred fears Thursday about a crackdown on free speech on the country’s No. 1 search engine.

Yandex explained in a statement that the rating service, dubbed Top Yandex, had stopped reflecting the situation in the Russian blogosphere and instead become a “media tool” aimed at influencing the public and the mass media. (Moscow Times)

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