ABSTRACT
The aim of this volume has been to examine the limits on, and opportunities for, free speech that are provided by online and social media. The answer to this question is, as it turns out, not clearcut. As Freek van der Vet noted in his chapter, prosecuting people for their online behaviour is not exclusive to Russia, nor to authoritarian contexts. What seems to be specific is that the prosecutions focus on random posts, which, in turn, makes it not always clear what is being censored. This has consequences for freedom of expression: seemingly random prosecutions may lead to self-censorship. Yet, as argued by Markku Lonkila, Larisa Shpakovskaya and Philip Torchinsky in their chapter, social media, while being both the target of and means for increased state surveillance and control, still serve as an instrument for mobilising civil society in Russia. While not neglecting to discuss broad developments in regulations and soft power, the contributions in this volume have also drawn attention to smaller phenomena and particular nuances that tend to receive less attention. Liudmila Sivetc, for example, demonstrated in this volume how free expression is also hindered by the side-effects of website blocking, such as over-blocking. At the same time, the fragmented and rapidly changing nature of online communication makes it, by definition, hard to control, which creates space for creativity. The fragmentation of the online sphere ensures some room to manoeuvre also for political activism, for example, in the form of online magazines (Lassila in this volume).
