Zen News Explained

Language Count:Russian and Ukrainian
Genre:online news aggregator

Dzen News (Russian: Дзен Новости tr. Zen Novosti; formerly Yandex.News) is a Russian news aggregator developed by Yandex in 2000 and owned by VK since 2022.[1]

Since 2016, it has been censored by the Russian authorities via the whitelist of media which were allowed on the Yandex main page. During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the aggregator with a 34+ million audience (2019) aided state propaganda by suppressing all independent coverage of the war events.[2]

Such practices had a significant negative impact on the reputation of Yandex and are one of the core reasons behind the sanctions against the company's CEO Tigran Khudaverdyan, and president Arkady Volozh.[3] [4]

Operations

Zen.News aggregates articles submitted by publishers via RSS 2.0 and ranks them according to a number of parameters. The articles are sorted and added to collections related to key events (so-called Stories). The process is automated.[5] Since 2016, the service only aggregates publications from publishers with a license issued by Roskomnadzor.[6] By July 2019, the monthly audience of Zen.News (Yandex.News) totaled 34 mil users—which does not include the visitors to the Yandex main page which featured top Stories. For the top Russian media, the share of visitors from Zen.News (Yandex.News) reached up to 36%.[7]

In 2014, it became known that the government of Moscow had learned to manipulate Zen.News (Yandex.News) search results by running a network of local online newspapers that provided positive coverage of city events.[8] In many contexts, such as Russo-Georgian War, anti-Putin protests in Russia, and Russo-Ukrainian War, the search results and Stories were assumingly manipulated, though Yandex always denied such accusations.[9] [10] [11] In 2022, Meduza reported that Yandex censored Zen.News (Yandex.News) stories as a part of a behind-the-scenes agreement with Putin's administration—and the Yandex employees knew it.[12]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Yandex sold Zen and News to VK . September 12, 2022 . The Bell . December 1, 2022 . September 14, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20220914094850/https://thebell.io/yandeks-zakryl-sdelku-po-prodazhe-dzena-i-novostey-kompanii-vk . live .
  2. Web site: How to live without Yandex.News: the possible consequences of news aggregator closure . Irina Yuzbekova . August 22, 2019 . Forbes . December 1, 2022 . September 14, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190914075743/https://www.forbes.ru/tehnologii/382211-zhizn-bez-yandeksnovostey-kto-postradaet-v-sluchae-zakrytiya-agregatora . live .
  3. Web site: "We gave up on fighting": how the Russian invasion of Ukraine shattered Yandex . Svetlana Reiter . May 5, 2022 . Meduza . December 1, 2022 . November 22, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221122233511/https://meduza.io/feature/2022/05/05/my-zamuchilis-borotsya . live .
  4. Web site: Yandex founder Arkady Volozh became a subject of EU sanctions . Daria Korzhova . June 3, 2022 . The Bell . December 1, 2022 . November 22, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221122233513/https://thebell.io/osnovatel-yandeksa-arkadiy-volozh-popal-pod-sanktsii-evrosoyuza . live .
  5. Web site: How the Yandex.News work? . Sergi Lefter . December 2, 2015 . Media Sapiens . June 23, 2022 . December 7, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221207231006/https://ms.detector.media/onlain-media/post/15068/2015-12-02-yandeks-novosty-kak-ustroena-rabota-servysa/ . live .
  6. Web site: Yandex.News excluded sources without Roskomnadzor-issued license . October 20, 2016 . Meduza . December 7, 2022 . October 21, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161021074730/https://meduza.io/news/2016/10/20/iz-yandeks-novostey-uberut-soobscheniya-smi-ne-imeyuschih-registratsii-roskomnadzora . live .
  7. Web site: The life without Yandex.News . Irina Yuzbekova . August 22, 2019 . Forbes . January 29, 2021 . September 14, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190914075743/https://www.forbes.ru/tehnologii/382211-zhizn-bez-yandeksnovostey-kto-postradaet-v-sluchae-zakrytiya-agregatora . live .
  8. Web site: We investigated: how the authorities outsmarted Yandex . October 22, 2014 . RBC . December 7, 2022 . February 13, 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150213211113/http://top.rbc.ru/technology_and_media/22/10/2014/5447a659cbb20f1d5d33b94d . live .
  9. Web site: The media are still under pressure . Konstantin Benumov . October 24, 2016 . Meduza . January 29, 2021 . March 30, 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170330084423/https://meduza.io/feature/2016/10/24/oschuscheniya-chto-ot-mediasredy-otstali-net . live .
  10. Digital death of Russia . Petr Skorobogaty . Expert . 26 (905) . 2014 . 2022-12-07 . 2014-06-24 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140624144204/http://expert.ru/expert/2014/26/setevaya-omerta-rossii/ . live .
  11. Web site: How the Yandex News became the digital equivalent of TV . May 5, 2022 . Novaya Gazeta . September 7, 2022 . October 27, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221027123928/https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2022/05/17/iandeks-novosti-sygrali-v-iashchik . live .
  12. Web site: "We gave up on fighting". How the Russo-Ukraine War affected Yandex . Svetlana Reiter . May 5, 2022 . Meduza . June 23, 2022 . November 22, 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221122233511/https://meduza.io/feature/2022/05/05/my-zamuchilis-borotsya . live .

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