Anti-Putin campaigners 'using porn sites to show Russians the truth about Ukraine war'

dailystar.co.uk:

Vladimir Putin tightens his grip on access to independent news and information in Russia, campaigners have turned to using porn sites to get their anti-war messages across.

Russia recently introduced fake news legislation, a group of federal laws prohibiting the dissemination of information considered "unreliable" by Russian authorities, which many condemn as a tool to control criticism of the state.

A jail term of up to 15 years is the punishment for spreading intentionally "fake" news about the military.READ MORE: Bikini model who posed on tank forced to flee Ukraine after bone-chilling threatTo combat this Marina Ovsyannikova, a CEO at a Ukrainian digital marketing company, began buying ad space across websites in Russia and Belarus, linking to independent news on the war in Ukraine.As Russia's fake news laws made the bigger sites like Google and Youtube harder to use for her ploy, Ovsyannikova moved "into a darker realm", as the Guardian put it.The campaigner bought up ad space on online gambling and pornography sites, using money raised through fundraisers.

The sites proved to be a good platform due to the lack of moderation, huge audiences and "people behind them whose allegiances were with the highest bidder," Jemimah Steinfeld, editor-in-chief of Index on Censorship, wrote for the Guardian."If all else failed she’d try to take on Putin through porn."Russian Channel One editor Ovsyannikova made headlines when she held a poster reading "Stop the war.