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The Anatomy of Censorship and Propaganda: Evidence from Russian Wikipedias

This seminar session will welcome Vladimir Avetian, who will present his paper "The Anatomy of Censorship and Propaganda: Evidence from Russian Wikipedias" written with Ruben Durante (National University of Singapore), Ulrich Matter (Bern University of Applied Sciences), and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya (Paris School of Economics).

Event, Research Seminar

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Salle K.011, 1 place Saint Thomas d'Aquin 75007 Paris

Abstract

Dictators use censorship and propaganda to shape public opinion. As censored content is unobserved and propaganda can be subtle, uncovering the priorities of dictators is difficult. We address this challenge by comparing two online encyclopedias in Russian: Wikipedia, a crowd-sourced platform with independent editors, and Ruwiki, a Russian platform created by cloning Wikipedia and selectively editing content to serve the regime’s objectives. Patterns of editing activity suggest that, unlike Wikipedia, Ruwiki is edited by professionals rather than by volunteers. Ruwiki has far fewer contributors who make more edits per person and are active primarily on working days and during working hours. Regarding content, the main differences between the two encyclopedias concern three broad topics: (1) Russia’s foreign policy, (2) Russia’s domestic politics, and (3) culture. Ruwiki portrays the country as a liberator rather than an invader in both current and past conflicts. It censors pages about the opposition and domestic human rights violations while promoting a benign view of the current political elites. On the cultural dimension, Ruwiki censors articles about LGBTQIA+, sex, and pornography and promotes traditional gender roles, emphasizing the role of Russia as a defender of traditional values in contrast to the perceived Western moral decline.

Biography

Vladimir Avetian is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the “Governance and Regulation” Chair at University Paris-Dauphine – PSL. His  research sits at the intersection of computational social science, applied microeconomics, political economy, and urban economics. Primarily, he uses causal inference, machine learning, and text-as-data methods to study social, economic, and cultural divides. In particular, he focuses on the economics of prejudice and the political economy of media and ideology. Much of his work leverages large-scale, unstructured digital data from platforms such as social media, wikis, online marketplaces, and mapping services. He received his PhD in Economics from Sciences Po in 2022.

Practical informations

This seminar will be held in person and in English, on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM, in Room K.011, 1 Place Saint-Thomas d'Aquin, 75007 Paris.

Registration is mandatory via this link.