Governments around the world are finding it easier than ever to make the internet, and the companies that run it, knuckle under, Axios' Scott Rosenberg writes.

Driving the news: Russia Friday forced Apple and Google to remove an app that supporters of dissident leader Alexei Navalny had created to coordinate opposition votes in Russian elections.

• Also last week, China's government removed nearly all online content connected with one of its top movie stars as part of a broader campaign against the power of celebrities, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The big picture: Governments are limiting or banning applications, content and connectivity itself — and Big Tech companies, rich and powerful as they are, can't or won't fight back.

• From the Arab Spring to the Black Lives Matter protests, the internet has helped organizers build popular movements and even, on occasion, overthrow governments.
• But for now, at least, the tables have turned, and technology is giving entrenched leaders and parties an effective lever to bolster their power.

In Russia, per a New York Times report, the government of Vladimir Putin threatened specific Apple and Google employees with prosecution if the companies did not act to remove the Navalny app, which the government had said was illegal.

• Once the app, which distributed information to opposition voters on how best to deploy their ballots, got blocked, Navalny organizers started using Telegram to spread the word. But by the end of the day, that service had taken down their account, too.

In China, actress Zhao Wei's internet presence vanished at the end of August, per the WSJ. Movies featuring the star, who had 86 million fans on Weibo, have disappeared from online services. The government offered no explanation for why she seemed to have fallen out of favor.

• The move against Zhao came amid a wider government effort to limit the profile and power of online celebrities and business leaders, including a high-profile takedown of entrepreneur billionaire Jack Ma.

Around the world, nonprofit Access Now documented 50 internet shutdowns in 21 countries during the first five months of 2021.

• Governments in countries including India, Belarus, Turkey, Myanmar and Ethiopia have sought to cut their citizens off from internet access or to ban content and services they don't like.

Our thought bubble: Organizing our online universe around centralized chokepoints like app stores and search engine monopolies does much of the work in advance for authoritarian governments looking to squelch dissent.

Go deeper: Nationalism and authoritarianism threaten the internet's universality

Facebook is offering a mix of responses — some defiant, others conciliatory — in the wake of a weeklong Wall Street Journal series revealing critical internal reports about harms created by its products.

Between the lines: Facebook is looking to defend itself against the specific criticisms without further antagonizing regulators and legislators who already view the company as brazen and dangerous.

Driving the news:

• Top Facebook public affairs executive Nick Clegg Saturday published a post, "What the Wall Street Journal Got Wrong, " maintaining that the articles "deliberately mischaracterize" Facebook's actions and attribute false motivations for them.
• However, in an interview with Axios' Mike Allen, Clegg sounded a less hostile note, expressing a desire to share more data with researchers. "We're not yet in the kind of sustainable, sensible place as far as how we make Facebook data available to external researchers," Clegg said in the interview.

Yes, but: Facebook has often pledged to share more data and then fallen short. Just this past week, Facebook acknowledged that data it shared with researchers studying U.S. elections and democracy represented only a portion of U.S. users rather than all of them, as it had represented.

Between the lines: Facebook continues to take the position that the media is the problem and has treated the company unfairly. "What would be really worrisome is if Facebook didn't do this sort of research in the first place," Clegg argues in his post.

Our thought bubble: It's not like Facebook shared the research and explained why it hasn't taken stronger action. Indeed, the public wouldn't even know about most of this research if not for the Journal series.

Go deeper: The limits to Facebook's transparency

A new report about artificial intelligence and its effects warns AI has reached a turning point and its negative effects can no longer be ignored, as Axios Future's Bryan Walsh reports.

The big picture: For all the sci-fi worries about ultra-intelligent machines or wide-scale job loss from automation — both of which would require artificial intelligence that is far more capable than what has been developed so far — the larger concern may be about what happens if AI doesn't work as intended.

The backstory: The AI100 project — which was launched by Eric Horvitz, who served as Microsoft's first chief scientific officer, and is hosted by the Stanford Institute on Human-Centered AI — is meant to provide a longitudinal study of a technology that seems to be advancing by the day.

What's happening: A panel found that AI has exhibited remarkable progress over the past five years, especially in the area of natural language processing — the ability of AI to analyze and generate human language.

• The experts concluded that "to date, the economic significance of AI has been comparatively small," but the technology has advanced to the point where it is having a "real-world impact on people, institutions, and culture."

The catch: That means AI has reached a point where its downsides in the real world are becoming increasingly difficult to miss — and increasingly difficult to stop.

• "All you have to do is open the newspaper, and you can see the real risks and threats to democratic principles, mental health and more," says Toby Walsh, an AI expert at the University of New South Wales.

A viral TikTok challenge called "Devious Licks" is leading students nationwide to shatter mirrors, steal fire alarms and intentionally clog toilets, per the Washington Post, Axios' Erin Doherty reports.

Driving the news: Students are showing off their "devious licks" on TikTok — with a sped-up version of "Ski Ski BasedGod" by rapper Lil B playing in the background.

• TikTok on Wednesday announced that it will remove videos in connection with the trend and redirect related hashtags.

But, but, but: Students are creating new hashtags — "Diabolical Licks" or "Devious Liks" — to bypass TikTok's restrictions, Melissa Laudani, the principal at Lawton Chiles Middle School in Tallahassee, Florida, told the Post.

Go deeper: How TikTok sees inside your brain

On Tap

• There are a number of IPOs expected this week, including Freshworks and Toast.
• Adobe reports earnings on Tuesday, while Microsoft is holding a Surface hardware event on Wednesday. Salesforce, meanwhile, is holding a hybrid Dreamforce event online and in person Tuesday through Thursday.

Trading Places

• Former Uber exec Rajiv Aggarwal has been hired as Facebook India's director of public policy. (Economic Times)

ICYMI

• India's antitrust regulator has reportedly found that Google abused its monopoly over the Android operating system. (Reuters)
• Apple, TSU will create an app mapping Nashville's civil rights history. (Axios)

Now this is some impressive woodworking.