The Internet has not only digitized but also democratized information access across the globe. This gradual but path-breaking move to online information propagation has resulted in search engines playing an increasingly prominent role in shaping access to human knowledge. When an Internet user enters a query, the search engine sorts through the hundreds of billions of possible webpages to determine what to show. Google dominates the search engine market, with Google Search surpassing 80% market share globally every year of the last decade. Only in Russia and China do Google competitors claim more market share, with approximately 60% of Internet users in Russia preferring Yandex (compared to 40% in favor of Google) and more than 80% of China's Internet users accessing Baidu as of 2022. Notwithstanding this long-standing regional variation in Internet search providers, there is limited research showing how these providers compare in terms of propagating state-sponsored information. Our study fills this research gap by focusing on Russian cyberspace and examining how Google and Yandex's search algorithms rank content from Russian state-controlled media (hereon, RSM) outlets. This question is timely and of practical interest given widespread reports indicating that RSM outlets have actively engaged in promoting Kremlin propaganda in the lead-up to, and in the aftermath of, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

翻译：互联网不仅实现了信息的数字化，还在全球范围内普及了信息获取。这种逐渐但具有突破性的在线信息传播方式，使得搜索引擎在塑造人类知识获取渠道方面扮演着日益突出的角色。当互联网用户输入查询时，搜索引擎会在数千亿可能的网页中进行筛选，以确定展示内容。谷歌主导着搜索引擎市场，过去十年中，谷歌搜索每年在全球占据超过80%的市场份额。只有在俄罗斯和中国，谷歌的竞争对手拥有更高的市场份额：截至2022年，约60%的俄罗斯互联网用户更偏好Yandex（而40%用户使用谷歌），超过80%的中国互联网用户使用百度。尽管这种互联网搜索提供商的地区差异长期存在，但关于这些提供商在传播国家宣传信息方面的比较研究却十分有限。我们的研究填补了这一空白，聚焦于俄罗斯网络空间，考察谷歌和Yandex的搜索算法如何对俄罗斯官方媒体（以下简称RSM）来源的内容进行排名。鉴于广泛报道指出，RSM在2022年2月俄罗斯入侵乌克兰前后积极参与推广克里姆林宫宣传，此问题具有时效性和实际意义。