A court in the southeastern Belarusian city of Homel on December 7 labeled the Telegram, YouTube, X, and TikTok accounts of RFE/RL's Belarus Service, known locally as Radio Svaboda, as "extremist." Earlier, Belarusian authorities added to the list of extremists Svaboda's logo, its accounts on the Facebook, Instagram, VKontakte, and Odnoklassniki social networks, as well as the TikTok accounts of RFE/RL's Russian and Ukrainian services. Svaboda's website has been blocked in Belarus since August 2020 when unprecedented protests erupted over the official results of the presidential election that announced authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka the winner. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Belarus Service, click here.
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RFE/RL has been declared an "undesirable organization" by the Russian government.
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