That is, quite plainly, whataboutism. There is no substance in the comment beyond “others do it too so it’s ok for Russians to as well and if you think otherwise, well look at these others”
I know it’s hard for you to see whataboutism when your comeback to Yandex being censored was “In any case, the problem is that anything else is also censored.” but try harder.
Either it's an outrage for MSFT to do business with warmongering countries, or it isn't. Saying we only care about Russian aggressions while ignoring our own is just jingoism.
It’s not even remotely as black and white as you make it seem, and that still doesn’t excuse whataboutism. “Warmongering” after all is an extremely objective description that I’m sure people would not disagree on the definition of at all /s.
If anything, both should be individually evaluated. But blankly dismissing one as “it’s ok Voice of America does it too” is adding nothing to the discussion but shitty logical fallacies.
I read his post as, "Mainstream news outlets within countries tend to be biased towards the interests of that country." I think that's a more good faith interpretation, and leads to a sort of water is wet type observation. That said I do think he more or less self-hijacked his own post by specifically naming Voice of America which is practically begging for your claims.
exactly. "whataboutism" is nothing more than "how dare you not let me force you to talk about/deride what -I- want to talk about/deride, and on top of it, you do it by pointing out what a blatant hypocrite I am in my rant!". The cheapest of cheap comebacks.
Literally "don't dismiss my non-relevant hypocrisy".
Cheap rhetorical tricks aren't really a great look either.