Zen News

Zen News

Initial release	21 June 2000; 24 years ago (2000-06-21)
Available in	Russian and Ukrainian languages
Type	News aggregator
Website	dzen.ru/news

Dzen News ( tr. Zen Novosti; formerly Yandex.News) is a Russian news aggregator . It was developed by Yandex in 2000 and acquired by VK in 2022.[1]

Zen.News aggregates articles submitted by publishers via RSS 2.0 and ranks them according to various parameters. The articles are sorted and added to collections related to key events (so-called Stories). The process is automated.[2] Since 2016, the service only aggregates publications from publishers with a license issued by Roskomnadzor.[3]

In July 2019, the monthly audience of Zen.News (Yandex.News) totaled 34 million users. It had a market share of 36% in Russia.[4]

Controversies

In 2014, a report stated that the government of Moscow manipulated Zen.News (Yandex.News) search results by running a network of local online newspapers that provided positive coverage of city events.[5] 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 the service denied such accusations.[6][7][8]

In 2022, Meduza reported that stories were censored as a part of a secret agreement with the government of Russia.[9]

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the service allegedly aided state propaganda by suppressing all independent coverage of the Russo-Ukrainian War.[10]

Such practices led to sanctions against the service and key executives.[11][12]

References

1. "Yandex sold Zen and News to VK". The Bell. September 12, 2022. Archived from the original on September 14, 2022.
2. Sergi Lefter (December 2, 2015). "How the Yandex.News work?". Media Sapiens. Archived from the original on December 7, 2022. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
3. "Yandex.News excluded sources without Roskomnadzor-issued license". Meduza. October 20, 2016. Archived from the original on October 21, 2016. Retrieved December 7, 2022.
4. Irina Yuzbekova (August 22, 2019). "The life without Yandex.News". Forbes. Archived from the original on September 14, 2019. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
5. "We investigated: how the authorities outsmarted Yandex". RBC. October 22, 2014. Archived from the original on February 13, 2015. Retrieved December 7, 2022.
6. Benumov, Konstantin (24 October 2016). "«Ощущения, что от медиасреды отстали, нет» Интервью бывшего руководителя «Яндекс.Новостей» Татьяны Исаевой о реформе агрегаторов" [The media are still under pressure]. Meduza.io. Archived from the original on March 30, 2017. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
7. Скоробогатый, Петр (2014). "Сетевая омерта России" [Digital death of Russia]. Expert.ru. Archived from the original on 2014-06-24. Retrieved 2024-12-06.
8. Асанова, Антонина (5 May 2022). "«Яндекс.Новости» сыграли в ящик" [How the Yandex News became the digital equivalent of TV]. Novayagazeta.eu. Archived from the original on October 27, 2022. Retrieved September 7, 2022.
9. Svetlana Reiter (May 5, 2022). ""We gave up on fighting". How the Russo-Ukraine War affected Yandex". Meduza. Archived from the original on November 22, 2022. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
10. Yuzbekova, Irina (August 22, 2019). "Жизнь без «Яндекс.Новостей»: кто пострадает в случае закрытия агрегатора" [How to live without Yandex.News: the possible consequences of news aggregator closure]. Forbes. Archived from the original on September 14, 2019.
11. Reiter, Svetlana (May 5, 2022). ""We gave up on fighting": how the Russian invasion of Ukraine shattered Yandex". Meduza. Archived from the original on November 22, 2022.
12. Korzhova, Daria (June 3, 2022). "Yandex founder Arkady Volozh became a subject of EU sanctions". The Bell. Archived from the original on November 22, 2022.

External links

• Official website