Facebook is sunsetting its newsletter platform Bulletin, which was launched last year in an apparent attempt to compete with Substack and other subscription newsletter platforms.

It seems that Bulletin never really took off, and now Facebook’s parent company Meta is shifting resources to other, potentially more promising pursuits. Bulletin will close next year, though some of the prominent writers the company recruited last year will receive full payments for contracts that go into 2024, The New York Times reports.

As NYT reminds, “[o]ther newsletter projects have also suffered in recent months” in the face of the economic downturn, with Substack laying off 14% of its staff.

Yandex Music, one of the most popular music and podcast services in Russia, blocked a slate of podcasts from independent news outlets, including Radio Liberty’s podcasts, as well as flagship news podcasts by independent digital outlet Meduza and a show created by recently created Novaya Gazeta. Europe. The restrictions were requested by Roskomnadzor, Russia’s state censorship agency.

Since the start of Russia’s open invasion of Ukraine, the country’s tech giant Yandex has been under international scrutiny for bowing to the requirements of the state propaganda machine. Still, as The Fix reported recently, podcasting as a whole remains a largely free medium, with independent news media using it to bypass censorship.

Turkey’s parliament has started debating a controversial new bill that aims to combat disinformation but critics fear will restrict press freedom. The spread of “fake news” would be criminalised, with violators facing up to three years in prison.

As AP News reports, “[?]ritics, including opposition lawmakers and non-governmental organizations, say the law is too vague and could potentially be abused by the government to further crackdown on independent journalism, especially media that has developed on the internet.”

Press freedom has been significantly limited in Turkey, with the government controlling major news outlets and many journalists being imprisoned. The report by the Committee to Protect Journalists for 2021 notes that “Turkey’s crackdown after a failed coup attempt in 2016 effectively eradicated the country’s mainstream media and prompted many journalists to leave the profession.”

Bonus — Three more stories you might want to check out:

Reuters: Russia fines TikTok for ‘LGBT propaganda’, Twitch over Ukraine content
The Guardian: BBC accused of endangering World Service Vietnamese staff
The Guardian: Suella Braverman to consider giving anonymity to suspected criminals

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Weekly Digest: Facebook Winding Down Its Newsletter Platform, Restrictions in Russia & Turkey