Conspiracy theorists have always populated the blogosphere. But when Russian money recently bought the popular San Francisco-based social networking site, LiveJournal, the bloggers went into overdrive.
What could the Russians want with this lively site that claims to have nearly 2 million active users, including 241,000 in the UK, and which likes to entice web heads with the promise that LiveJournal “lets you express yourself, share your life and connect with friends online?”
In early December SUP, a Russian online business controlled by multi-millionaire Alexander Mamut, snapped up LiveJournal from its California-based owner Six Apart for an undisclosed sum, but one that certainly ran into millions of dollars. No group was more concerned than the sites’ users in Russia itself, where LiveJournal is known as Zhivoi Zhurnal (Zh Zh) and where it is widely seen as a rare platform for free expression in the former Soviet Union. Its popularity there means Russia accounts for about 28% of LiveJournal’s global user base. But under the ownership of the Kremlin-loyal Mamut – who counts Roman Abramovich as a close personal friend along with Tatyana Dyachenko, daughter of the late Boris Yeltsin – fears of creeping Kremlin influence in the blogosphere gave the conspiracy theorists a field day.
“I fear that tightening control in Russia means that a Russian blog company will end up analyzing, filtering, and misusing content,” posted one Russian user. “I don’t know why Zhivoi Zhurnal stayed untouched until now,” wrote another Russian blogger. “Perhaps partly by the regime’s oversight, partly because the regime wanted to have a place where they could check people’s opinions. Now they want to interfere, or maybe even destroy the community, who knows? We are taught by history not to trust the authorities. “ In contrast, some LiveJournal users in the West have been more concerned that the SUP acquisition would lead to more commercialization of the site and even creeping, American-style political correctness. (full report) (The Business, UK)
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