Why has the 'Ukrainian curse' been hanging over the US in recent years?

The US Congressional Committee on Justice is currently conducting its own investigation into censorship in the United States.

This is actually their internal political discussion between Republicans and Democrats about the limits of social media censorship. And it is obvious that this topic will be politicized on the eve of the start of the US election campaign. 

What does Ukraine have to do with it?

"The fact is that the Committee has published an interim report on the results of the investigation, which could have very bad consequences for us."

According to the US Congress, at the beginning of the war, just before Mr. Bakanov's resignation, the FBI cooperated with the SBU in blocking pro-Russian propaganda accounts on social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

So, the Committee found that the SBU sent very strange requests to the FBI during the period of Mr. Bakanov's tenure. For example, one of the targets of the blocking requests was even the official Russian-language account of the US State Department. A number of American accounts were also targeted, and a thorough check of these accounts revealed that they did not belong to the Russian propaganda network. Moreover, the SBU submitted a request to the FBI to block a number of Ukrainian accounts that could have belonged to opposition members and media representatives critical of the government. The interim report explicitly states that such activities of the SBU during the Bakanov period could have been inspired by Russian agents infiltrating our special service.

"This is a very bad story, because obviously, Republicans, and especially Trumpists, can take it as a banner during the election campaign and politicize this topic, turning it into discrediting assistance to Ukraine, into the idea that Ukraine and the FBI were acting on the instructions of the Biden administration, and so on. Let's not forget that the Trumpists have a grudge against the FBI, which was investigating contacts between Trump's entourage and Russians."

We need to act proactively, not wait for this political bomb to go off in the fall. The SBU should conduct an internal investigation that will identify the officials responsible for such actions. These individuals should be removed from their positions, if they still hold them. The report should be handed over to our American partners. We also need to confirm or deny the thesis that such actions were inspired by the aggressor country!

As for the freedom of speech, which is constantly criticized by our partners, a kind of 'goodwill gesture' could be unblocking the broadcasting of three TV channels that were not involved in the telethon format - Priamyi, Channel 5 and Espreso.

Source

About the author. Serhiy Vysotsky, journalist, former member of the Ukrainian parliament.

The editors don't always share the opinions expressed by the authors of the blogs.