‘The Daily Show’ says Russia is banning fidget spinners. (It isn't.)

On July 19, Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Trevor Noah aired a segment on fidget spinners in Russia, falsely claiming that the government is banning the popular children’s toy.

“Russia is banning fidget spinners. And just like that, there goes Russia’s reputation as a fun country,” Noah told viewers. “The reason Russia is banning fidget spinners is because, at an anti-Putin rally, a bunch of people were giving out free fidget spinners. So Putin was like, ‘Fidget spinners means you’re against me [sic],’ and then Putin’s opponent [Alexey Navalny] just went with it. He was like, ‘Uh… yeah! Everyone with a fidget spinner supports me!’”

As Meduza reported earlier this month, the Russian state-owned television network Rossiya 24 aired a news segment in June about the supposed connection between the sudden popularity of “fidget spinners” and the actions of Russia’s anti-Kremlin political opposition. But there are several problems with The Daily Show’s report:

1. Russia has not banned fidget spinners, and no government agency has even proposed the idea. On July 18, Rospotrebnadzor (Russia’s federal consumer rights regulator) announced that it will review the safety of fidget spinners for children and adolescents, but it hasn't said a word about prohibiting the toy.
2. The Daily Show also misreported details about Rossiya 24’s broadcast, claiming that “people were giving out free fidget spinners.” In the June 19 segment, the network’s correspondent claimed that “videobloggers sold [fidget spinners] right in the thick of events, and used the profits to film new videos.” This might seem like a trivial misunderstanding, but the accusation that oppositionists were raising money off fidget spinners was an essential part of Rossiya 24’s report.
3. The demonstrations that swept Russia on June 12 were “anti-corruption” protests, not “anti-Putin rallies.” Yes, prominent Putin critic Alexey Navalny has spearheaded this movement, and many of Navalny's supporters who came out to protest that day are undoubtedly political opponents of the president, but calling the demonstrations “anti-Putin” overlooks the catalyst for Navalny’s recent resurgence as a protest leader: his investigation into alleged corruption involving Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (not President Putin), published on YouTube earlier this year.