Launched to coincide with the World Day Against Cyber Censorship on March 12th, it shines a light on the importance of press freedom. ‘The Truth Wins’ uses an innovative strategy to provide easy access to censored articles and independent information by prominent journalists from Russia and Turkey, the countries most responsible for forcing Twitter to quash dissident voices, as well as Brazil, notorious for disinformation and journalist harassment. From today onwards, in these countries, simply typing the national lottery numbers into Twitter will direct readers to information that is otherwise extremely difficult to access – archived through uncensorable blockchain networks. These constantly changing access codes keep the truth moving too fast for state censors – and do so by actually hijacking the same state-owned media responsible for publicizing these numbers.
Philosophie
Every time a journalist is censored, another source of independent information is lost – and in many countries this makes it harder and harder to find the truth online. But even in countries with tight control of the media, one thing always gets through: the lottery numbers.
Problem
Censorship is on the rise, globally. In particular, social media are being pressured by autocratic states to remove content and accounts that challenge their authority. There has been an especially rapid increase in takedown requests on Twitter, above all by the Turkish and Russian governments. Amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is being flooded with requests for support from censored Russian media.