Navalny allies accuse Telegram and other platforms of censorship

The moves are seen as a possible milestone in Russia’s crackdown on the internet and its standoff with US tech firms.

Jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny’s allies are accusing YouTube and Telegram of censorship after the video platform and messaging app restricted access to their anti-government voting recommendations for Russia’s parliamentary election.

The latest accusations came on Saturday, one day after Navalny’s allies had already accused Alphabet’s Google and Apple of buckling under Kremlin pressure after the companies removed an app from their stores that the activists had hoped to use against the ruling party in the election.

Voting began on Friday and ran until late on Sunday.