Did the Belarusian leader discuss shutting down or reducing the Internet in Belarus by 2025? No, that's not true: On the contrary, Lukashenko confirmed the plan to provide broadband Internet access to rural areas of Belarus by 2025.
On July 10, 2023, the claim appeared in a video posted on the TikTok account nexta_tv (archived here). The President said in Russian (translated by Lead Stories staff):
high-speed internet
we have a plan in '25
shut this case down.
the less you surf this Internet, the smarter you are
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Fri Jul 14 11:09:36 2023 UTC)
Tiktoker cut this clip from a video shot on July 10. The Belarusian president answered questions from employees of the "Mogilevliftmash" factory. Lukashenko confirmed the plan to provide broadband Internet access to rural areas by 2025. The head of state actually said the following (translated from Russian by Lead Stories staff):
We have a plan to close this issue in the year 2025. Everyone you mentioned (Lukashenko speaks to the person asking the question - LS) should have broadband Internet, well, you cannot do anything without it today. But, on the other hand, I think you will be smarter if you spend less time on the Internet. Yeah, the Internet is a great thing...
In the upcoming years, the President of Belarus has no intention of diminishing the usage of the Internet in the country.
