Forced video apologies have become increasingly common since Russia's war in Ukraine began.

One woman in Crimea was shown apologising for sharing Ukrainian songs on her social media accounts and another for posting pictures of various objects in the blue-and-yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag.

A puppet theatre actress from occupied Donetsk who was shown saying sorry for sharing Ukrainian songs on TikTok said later she had been pressured into doing it by the police.

“Either you record this video or… you’re going to jail and your child is going to an orphanage,” she quoted a police officer as saying.

  • @SamsonSeinfelder@feddit.de
    24•10 months ago

    They want to let others russians know, that you will be publicly humiliated if you form your own ideas about the war. Deviationist will be put at the pillory. It is a century old tool of every authoritarian regime. It is from the same handwriting that orchestrated public murders of high profile entities, to let others know how dissenters will be judged by the corrupted reigns of russia.

    They hate when people form their own opinions about things. Or even worst: Telling others about it. How can a society work on these grounds, where deviating ideas are supressed and only the official narrative is the only allowed way to think. When has a system/society like that ever resulted in a good outcome? I would reckon: never. A system like that is prone to fail at some point.