Russian authorities are cracking down on TikTok and other social media sites ahead of planned anti-corruption and anti-dictatorship protests being planned for the weekend. Last weekend’s rallies were met with extraordinary police violence and nearly 4,000 arrests, after tens of thousands of people took to the streets of cities across 11 time zones in some of the biggest protests ever to challenge Vladimir Putin’s rule.

Police have stepped up arrests and home searches targeting supporters of opposition nationalist politician Alexei Navalny, who was arrested upon his return to Russia earlier this month after surviving an assassination attempt in 2020. Navalny says the attack, using the Soviet-era nerve agent Novichok, took place on Putin’s orders. On Thursday, a court in Moscow ordered Navalny to be jailed for 30 days ahead of his trial. Navalny spoke by video link from jail. 

Alexei Navalny: “I want to say one more time: You won’t succeed in frightening us. In fact, we are the majority. You won’t manage to frighten dozens of millions of people who were robbed by those in power, despite the fact that those people who are now under arrest face hardships.”