The youtube channel of the politician and blogger Alexei Navalny, who himself has actually turned into a internet meme, has almost half a million subscribers, and all these people are actively discussing his agenda.
“This is a way to bypass state control. Navalny uses youtube to address the young people who can see him on smartphones, tablets, i.e. there is no need for him to be on television,” says media analyst Paulyuk Bykouski.
In addition, no decision of the local court can remove the video from the US-based site. Authoritarian government does not like it.
Among the most popular bloggers from the CIS are ‘Kamikadzedead’ and journalist Anatol Shary, who mainly covers topics related to Ukraine.
The channel ‘NEXTA’ occupies one of the first places. However, the author has not disclosed his face yet.
“I began to think that the need to create an alternative to state channels! Of course, there is “Belsat”, but “Belsat” is for a specific audience, and I wanted to create a project in Russian, so that people from the post-Soviet space also knew what was happening in Belarus,” said the blogger.
As a result, he has almost 70 thousand subscribers and videos that have several million views.
According to the source, our neighbors live by stereotypes about Belarus. If they see an alternative picture, they are outraged and surprised.
The ‘Youtube’ platform is very important for communication with the public, it covers quite a wide group of the population, and in many ways this makes it possible to reach out to people who are not necessarily interested in politics,” adds the author of the ‘NEXTA’ channel.
Political bloggers from Belarus are united by one feature.
“They did not just became popular in the wake of the protest, they became political in the wake of the protests! Until recently they were dealing with social problems,” says Mr. Bykouski.
Among similar channels is the channel “No Guarantees” of the Homiel blogger Maxim Filipovich and the guys from the “Rotary Harvester” project. But the most peculiar feature of the Belarusian blogosphere is that there are noo people praising the authorities or saying that all is fine in Belarus.
Kiryl Smyahlikau, “Belsat”, photo: Vasily Fedosenko / Reuters / Forum
