Russia might be developing its own state-controlled search engine

We’re lucky enough not to be tightly censored in our internet usage in the UK, but other countries aren’t as fortunate. It seems like Russia is making moves to further tighten its censorship with a state-controlled search engine.

Rumours from Russian newspaper Vedomosti, are suggesting that the country’s government has such a thing in development. If true, then the $20 million project would go by the name of Sputnik (that explains the picture) and could be used in government institutions. Obviously this would give those in power a much greater grip on the content that could be accessed on the web.

All that said, it’s not looking good for the plan. The current search engine giant in Russia, named Yandex, owns over 60 percent of the market share. Google and co take up the rest. Breaking into that area would be difficult to say that least.

Source: Reuters