Kremlin takes on Internet dissent

[PhilSays]

This year's report by Reporters Without Borders on World Day against Cyber Censorship condemns Russia as one of the " Enemies of the Internet." "Russia has adopted dangerous legislation governing the flow of news and information and freedom of expression online," it concludes.

Even though much of the Russian media is known to be under state control, the Internet has remained relatively free, with blogs and social media sites providing an important and creative platform for political discussion. But on March 4, the Kremlin once again took the media battle it has been waging against pro-Western protests online. Russia's Internet monitoring agency Roskomnadzor blocked 13 profiles associated with the Ukrainian protest movement on the popular Russian Facebook equivalent VKontakte because they "contained calls to commit terrorist acts and take part in unsanctioned mass action."

The Kremlin recently blocked 13 VKontakte pages linked to the Ukrainian protest movement

It's not the first time that content on social media sites and blog platforms has been temporarily blocked or blacklisted. But Russian legislators have made the job easier thanks to a new article, which came into force on February 1. It allows Roskomnadzor to block sites containing calls to extremism or mass unrest in the space of hours. It seems that the freedom of the Internet has been under particular attack in recent months through a series of measures that seem designed to rein in opposition bloggers and social media activists.

http://www.dw.de/kremlin-takes-on-internet-dissent/a-17493159?maca=en-TWITTER-EN-2004-xml-mrss

[geek tragedy]

1. Did Ed Snowden have any comment? nt

[okaawhatever]

2. Yes, but it was censored. nt

[jberryhill]

4. VK offered him a job

What does he do for a living, anyway?

[Blue_Tires]

15. Snowden hasn't had a new comment in almost a year

Last edited Wed Mar 19, 2014, 04:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Every interview, speech, and public statement he's given is pretty much recycled from his original Guardian interview...

I am glad to see this in Deutsche Welle, though -- If the WaPo had this story the screams of "bias" would have been deafening...

Even though Russian citizens don't even *have* the laws which in theory are supposed to protect them from this, I have no doubt that Greenwald is brushing this off as a non-story on his twitter feed and has his list of "Yeah, but the USA does X,Y, and Z!" -responses ready to cut-and-paste...And Sarah Harrison will remain understandably tight-lipped...


EDIT: Here's a typical Greenwaldian non-answer to the Ricks piece:

Paul Szoldra ?@PaulSzoldra · 22h
@ggreenwald @tomricks1 so at this point, Glenn, you would say you have an opinion on Ukraine/RU, but don’t share because everyone is asking?


Glenn Greenwald ?@ggreenwald · 22h
@PaulSzoldra @tomricks1 When I have opinions I think are worth expressing, I express them- I don't need, or respond to, McCarthyite coercion

(Jesus fuckin' Christ could GG be a bigger dick if he tried? He spends more time slapfighting on twitter than writing stories )

[dlwickham]

3. but according to some on here

the Russians are the good guys

perhaps they're wrong

[LTR]

5. Edward Snowden sought asylum in a country with an internet monitoring agency?

Well played!

[MNBrewer]

12. You realize he wanted to go elsewhere, but we blocked it... right?

[Blue_Tires]

16. You realize there's nothing stopping him

from leaving anytime he wants to, right? (unless of course the Russian intelligence services are preventing him) Just renounce U.S. citizenship and fly on a RU passport anywhere in the world -- It's that simple...

[Benton D Struckcheon]

6. Details of Russia's Surveillance State

Posted this on another thread. They've put in place a system whereby a site they dub "extremist" can be blocked in 24 hours across the .ru domain:

In November 2012, Russia acquired a nationwide system of Internet-filtering. The principle of Internet censorship wasn’t new to Russian authorities. Since 2007, regional prosecutors have implemented court decisions requiring Internet providers to block access to banned sites accused of extremism. But this had not been done systematically. Sites blocked in one region remained accessible in others. The Single Register, officially introduced on November 1, 2012, aimed to solve this problem. Three government agencies—the Roskomnadzor, the Federal Anti-Drug Agency, and the Federal Service for the Supervision of Consumer Rights and Public Welfare—submit data for the government’s black list of sites. Service providers are then required to block access to each such site within 24 hours.

Since last November, hundreds of websites have been banned from the Russian Internet. The list ranges from the lighthearted Australian viral YouTube hit “Dumb Ways to Die” to Absurdopedia (the Russian version of Uncyclopedia). Even the parody web site Gospoisk (gossearch.ru) was blocked. The site was a fake search engine, ostensibly created with government support, structured so that when a visitor types a query in the search box, he is asked to enter his first and last name, patronymic, passport details, address, and the reason for the request. Since it was a parody, this data evaporated into the ether.

http://www.worldpolicy.org/journal/fall2013/Russia-surveillance

As for the sainted Snowden, I'm sure they're using him for this effort. As the linked article makes clear, the timing of his defection (because that is in fact what it was) was perfect for them.
I doubt anyone asked him anything about this at SXSW. Am I right?

[SidDithers]

7. I won't believe it until I read it on RT...nt

Sid

[Electric Monk]

8. You wouldn't happen to be Pretzel_Warrior's zombie sockpuppet, would you?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=298088

You've been quite prolific, and making yourself right at home here, in the short time the PhilSays account has been active and the Pretzel_Warrior account has been unable to post (yet again).

[WorseBeforeBetter]

9. Ta da...

On Wed Mar 12, 2014, 06:23 PM an alert was sent on the following post:

You wouldn't happen to be Pretzel_Warrior's zombie sockpuppet, would you?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4654060

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

Personal attack.

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Wed Mar 12, 2014, 06:43 PM, and the Jury voted 3-3 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #3 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: I know tensions are high between some here, but this is just uncalled for. Next time PM the admin if you suspect such and they will deal with it if there's any reality to your beliefs. Peace.
Juror #4 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: It is a personal attack on 2 DU member's. The Op and one who, according to the poster is unable to respond at this time. That is low. Hide it!

Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.

[Electric Monk]

10. Well, would you look at that! OP was PPR'd and reason given was "previously banned"

So I was correct that it was somebodies zombie sockpuppet, at a minimum.

[Electric Monk]

11. And would you look at this? Looks like I was right all along, and he did it again, too.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=306317&sub=trans
Sockpuppet account created by Pretzel_Warrior to get around his suspension.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=298088&sub=trans
Created sockpuppet account (functioning_cog) to get around his suspension.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

14. It's half the fun of coming to DU these days...

the zap/resurrect cycle.

[Catherina]

13. US, UK listed as Enemies of the Internet in same report. Right in the introduction.

...

Identifying government units or agencies rather than entire governments as Enemies of the Internet allows us to draw attention to the schizophrenic attitude towards online freedoms that prevails in in some countries. Three of the government bodies designated by Reporters Without Borders as Enemies of the Internet are located in democracies that have traditionally claimed to respect fundamental freedoms: the Centre for Development of Telematics in India, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in the United Kingdom, and the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States.

The NSA and GCHQ have spied on the communications of millions of citizens including many journalists. They have knowingly introduced security flaws into devices and software used to transmit requests on the Internet. And they have hacked into the very heart of the Internet using programmes such as the NSA’s Quantam Insert and GCHQ’s Tempora. The Internet was a collective resource that the NSA and GCHQ turned into a weapon in the service of special interests, in the process flouting freedom of information, freedom of expression and the right to privacy.

The mass surveillance methods employed in these three countries, many of them exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, are all the more intolerable because they will be used and indeed are already being used by authoritarians countries such as Iran, China, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to justify their own violations of freedom of information. How will so-called democratic countries will able to press for the protection of journalists if they adopt the very practices they are criticizing authoritarian regimes for?

...

http://12mars.rsf.org/2014-en/enemies-of-the-internet-2014-entities-at-the-heart-of-censorship-and-surveillance/

Funny that. Russia got listed on the map. The US and the UK got special mentions and paragraphs.