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The Internet Censorship Google

Russia Makes Good On Its Threat To Fine Google Over 'Illegal' Internet Content (engadget.com) 110

Posted by BeauHD from the warning-shot dept.
Russian authorities on Tuesday fined Google 6 million rubles, or just under $82,000, after the company failed to comply with Moscow's demands to delete prohibited online content. Engadget reports: On Monday, Russia's internet watchdog, Roskomnadzor, gave Google 24 hours to delete more than 26,000 instances of online media considered to be illegal in the country. If their demands weren't met, authorities threatened to slow down Google's services in Russia and levy fines of up to 10 percent of the company's annual revenue. Today, Roskomnadzor fined Google in three batches at 2 million rubles apiece, alleging administrative offenses in each case, according to Reuters. Much of the prohibited content involves calls for social action following the detention of high-profile Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in January.
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Russia Makes Good On Its Threat To Fine Google Over 'Illegal' Internet Content More

Russia Makes Good On Its Threat To Fine Google Over 'Illegal' Internet Content

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  • Ivan doesn't need the Goog, he has Pootyvista.

  • Ooooh, $82k. Jeez, that's gonna leave a mark...

    • Setting a precedent.
      • There are already. It is fined on a weekly basis. After the Russians rate limited Twitter (with a ban ultimatum) all USA media giants have suddenly become quite cooperative.
    • No it will not. But the other fines will.

      What is really bothering google in Russia are not the fines for NOT removing materials, but fines for removing them in a manner which is discriminatory local producers. There the fine starts to DOUBLE on a daily basis from a certain date onwards.

      Google has one fine issued for removals under USA "we sanction media we do not like which contradict our opinions" decisions - for Tsargrad and has proceedings for 4 more. By September-October the fines will exceed Google

    • While at it, the fine comes with a countdown to a rate limit at the country border. Not good for business. In fact, much worse for business than any fine.

      So Google will not just pay as a "cost of doing business". It will comply.

    • At $426,805 per minute [cnbc.com] that's about 11.5 seconds of Google revenue.

  • One MILLION dollars! (Score:3)

    by bistromath007 ( 1253428 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @09:12PM (#61422260)

    You know your legislation is toothless when it's less threatening than Dr. Evil.

    • I'm torn. I loathe Google because of its cowtowing to the CCP -- which helps the CCP to hurt its citizens. I'm also not keen on the remains of the USSR -- doing much of anything. Makes me think of a battle between KingKong and Godzilla. Absolutely ridiculous but if it leads to the destruction of both, gimme the popcorn and I'll watch.

  • EZ fix (Score:5, Insightful)

    by iggymanz ( 596061 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @09:12PM (#61422262)

    Google should leave Russia and cut off all their IP blocks. Those that really want to google can use VPN. Double down on links that portray Russia badly.

    • Actually, Putin would like that. Then he will have succeeded in controlling all the media, just like the old Soviet days.

      • Not really, people would be googling (and many other fun illegal things) and he wouldn't know what. The harder you squeeze a handful of 85W oil the more will fly away from your grasp. He's trying to herd cats.

        • You know how easy it is to block a VPN, right? In reality, there is no hope when you are chained to an ISP that will divert and report anything the government tells it to.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by Anonymous Coward
            That's why services like Starlink should come in handy. Just bypass the terrestrial providers who would otherwise censor and report you and get your Internet feed from the stars.

            • Those can also be controlled. The antenna has to be outside for it to get signal, which means it's visible from outside as well. Just fine/jail people for "operating a transmitter without a license" for using Starlink. Also, the equipment has to be imported, so it may also be seized by customs.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Nite_Hawk ( 1304 )

                The difference there is that you have to fine your citizens one by one rather than a handful of "imperialistic" US companies.

              • The antenna has to be outside for it to get signal,

                Okay

                which means it's visible from outside as well.

                No, it does not. You can cover it with something transparent to radio frequencies but not visible ones, like a sheet of vinyl.

                • Yeah, it's those radio frequencies shining like a lighthouse beacon that will get you caught.

                  • Yes, but because they're directional you will have to get fairly close to detect them. Obviously no antenna is perfectly directional so you can detect them from the ground, but you could make that harder with grounded bottom shielding.

                    • To the spy satellites they'll look like a thousand points of light. What we will need are intermittent transmitters that can cut out before anybody can get a good fix, but even a repeating flash will be found and disabled. It will always be eternal cat and mouse until they decide to just blow everybody up

            • They'll just have vans like the UK had to look for stray signals from CRTs to enforce the TV tax. In this case it will be for satellite signals. They can also watch for payments to unauthorized ISPs like starlink. A handful might get around these, but for the average person they won't. Controlling the media is very big for despots and dictators.

            • no, OP is talking out of his ass. Detecting use of a VPN as opposed to many other kinds of encrypted traffic is hard.

              • :-) And that is why all unauthorized encrypted traffic can and will be blocked. That is not hard at all.

                • There is no way to detect "unauthorized traffic". You could be on meeting with employer or using vpn for work.

                  Tell me the technical details of identifying "unauthorized traffic"

                  You are talking out of your ass.

                  • End points will have to be approved also. I know you like to sound all important and to talk shit, but you are off base. Traffic is very easy to sort out and control. Your ISP does it all the time

                    • Impossible, no ISP can maintain a list of all companies and services everywhere that have encrypted traffic streams, nor can they distinguish encrypted tcp 443 with web traffic from vpn on that port.

                      I work in securing networks and systems, I know what is possible and what is not. You do not.

                    • No, not impossible, or maybe with your limited budget it might be. Everything will have to be whitelisted to get through. If they want, they can simply block all encrypted traffic and anything that looks like encrypted traffic. You'll have to buy a gift card to use your little VPN from your ISP when they pull the plug

                      I know what is possible and what is not.

                      Oy! Smell the arrogance! The number of times all you "experts" have been proven wrong.

                    • I'm not expert? You are making up things that aren't happening, can't happen, only in your imagination. The government does not have the means to implement your fantasies, nor could they. Plenty of people in countries where attempts made are cruising the web, and getting whatever content they want with total impunity and yes distributing it, in fact it is hilarious they are the source of such things as pristine pirated content and means to distribute.

                    • I'm not expert?

                      Didn't say that, but you don't bat a thousand either...

                      The machine is running smoothly, they don't have to chase after everybody, just people of interest.

          • oh do tell, how to detect or block a vpn that has tens of thousands of addresses pool for you to connect to?

            • Why don't you ask Netflix?

              Ultimately deep packet inspection will nail you. Unless there is previous authorization, encrypted packets will just be dropped and reported to the appropriate agency. Besides, you still have to trust your VPN provider. We have to make the system peer to peer over a dumb pipe to circumvent the tyrants.

              You may think you're "winning" against them, but you're not

              • Sorry to break this too you, but there is no such thing as "deep packet inspection" of an encrypted stream without keys. You are throwing around buzzwords you don't understand. those appliances that do "deep packet inspection" on encrypted streams have private keys installed.

                You are claiming all websites will be dropped, because they all use encrypted https streams? And there is no telling what the traffic contains. You don't know how things work.

                • The ISP only has to whitelist approved protocols and destinations and drop everything else. Control is quite trivial.

                  • The protocols in an encrypted stream are unknown, there is no way to tell a browser doing https from a vpn on same port, and in fact business vpn work on the same port. There is no way to "make list of all destinations", there are billions and all manner of them come and go and a huge percentage such as "cloud" front ends change dynamically second by second.

                    You don't know anything about the technology of the internet, your ideas are silly and unworkable.

                    • You can go on and on all you want with your gratuitous "genius", but if I can't read your packets when asked to do so, to the bin it goes, it's that simple.

                    • You're claiming every party in every nation on earth that has ssl certificates is going to give private keys to every ISP? Nonsense, you're a child not understanding how the real world works. it's not doable and won't happen. You are talking out of your ass and can't counter my technical experience.

                    • Well then, I guess you win the internet.

                      Some day you will see out of your little box

                    • Right, someday I'll see outside my 25+ years experience with TCP/IP and my building of encrypted web servers, tunnels, vpn, load balancers with deep packet inspection/WAF and TLS mail.

                    • If you don't make it human readable, it won't pass through the gate. All your 25+ years experience will be made irrelevant.

                    • Oh, so all web sites are going to go back to http instead of https so people's passwords, credit card numbers, checking account number, health data will be in plain text instead of encrypted as they are now?

                      No, they won't. Internet traffic is and will continue to be encrypted. You're just ignorant and talking out of your ass.

                    • No, they won't. Internet traffic is and will continue to be encrypted.

                      Only with permission..

                    • There is no central body for the globe to give permission or store certs. It doesn't exist, can't exist, never will exist.

                      Comm is encrypted by default, there is no going back.

                    • The NSA can catch it all. A bunch of other places in UK, Australia, etc, can catch the surplus. Billions of dollars are being spent to set up what you say can't be done.

      • Then why doesn't he just do that now? Why do they threaten Google with the equivalent of a light pat on the ass? They need Google desperately. Google can and should just give them the finger and never pay a dime let alone open any conversation with Russia.

        • Why do they need Google? Why dish anyone need Google?

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Momentum. First a slap on the wrist... then it can be said that Google is a repeat offender, has been fined a ton of times, and then, the big hammer comes out.

          It is also propaganda. Russia has their own Great Firewall that they are working on, and being able to use foreign companies as an excuse to build it up is definitely something in the playbook.

          Not to say I blame Russia. Their law that data on Russians stays in Russian data centers is something that all countries should have.

          • the big hammer comes out.

            Which is?

            • >> the big hammer comes out.
              > Which is?

              That thing in the left hand of the guy in the sculpture below:

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

            • Maybe you're not old enough to really know what the Soviet Union was like. If you were under 14 when the wall came down, you probably don't get it. Look up Lubyanka. Many people never came out again. Did you see the series Chernobyl? When that woman was thrown in jail and he had to get help to get her out? He knew if he didn't that she would likely have been taken to a room and shot in the back of the head and disappeared. That is how everything worked. Toe the line or disappear. Western corporations were b

      • Actually, Putin would like that. Then he will have succeeded in controlling all the media, just like the old Soviet days.

        ... and the good old Rupert Murdoch days the good old Facebook and Twitter days. Capitalism and communism are surprisingly similar in some ways, like information flow being controlled by a small cabal of elites.

        • You never grew up listening to news reports of families being killed trying to get over the Berlin wall or other parts of the frontier. You also probably never knew anyone from the eastern block who had to escape or face imprisonment or execution for distributing 'illegal books'. It's too bad that younger people mistake education for experience.

    • Re:EZ fix (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Kisai ( 213879 ) on Tuesday May 25, 2021 @09:33PM (#61422326)

      That's what Putin wants.

      The west always has this naive "we can leave and take our toys with us" attitude when dealing with highly corrupt governments in Asia.

      Russian companies are regularly stolen and then used to launder criminal activity in Russia.
      https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/russian-money-canada-1.4102132
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermitage_Capital_Management
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnitsky_Act

      The same happens in China. You can't setup shop in China without a chinese partner, and then the chinese partner runs off with your IP legally, and leaves the western company having to deal with counterfeits of their product coming back to western shores.

      Don't do business in Russia, Don't do business in China. You will be punished, your property stolen under your nose, and western companies seeking profits in either country will be greatly disappointed.

      Likewise, don't do business in India or Brazil for the same reason, domestic laws there require electronics to be made in the country at great additional costs, and those items often find their way back to North America and Europe as cheaper counterfeits.
       

    • Re:EZ fix (Score:4, Insightful)

      by cheesybagel ( 670288 ) on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @12:44AM (#61422694)

      The Russian government wouldn't care. The Russian internet industry would easily gobble up any market share Google concedes.
      Facebook already has quite limited market share there since most people use VKontakte.
      Yandex is a viable competitor in search and e-mail services.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Why? The fine is tiny compared to the profit they make from Russia. Also being there an uncensored helps Russians access stuff that their government would rather they didn't, which is a good thing.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by khchung ( 462899 )

      Google should leave Russia and cut off all their IP blocks. Those that really want to google can use VPN. Double down on links that portray Russia badly.

      Right, that had worked so well for Google with China in the past decade.

  • And now we all know why the internet is fragmented. [medium.com]

  • If I were Google I'd talk openly about pulling out of Russia entirely. They'd cave.
    • Two year olds do not have the right to vote, nor should they.

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      ACTUALLY, it is hard to tell what the hell is going on. Those instances, where were they, were they in Russian, were they hosted in Russia by Google servers. Are the pushing content or waiting for it to be requested. Was any of the content Google advertisements.

      Clearly Russia prefers Russians to prefer https://yandex.com/ [yandex.com] for search, maps and email (I use them for email and maps in Russia street view et al get a better feel of the place, well sort of mainly to send emails to the US or UK because IT IS FUN

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      ahhh no, Russia doesn't need google at all and No all Americans do not have the right to vote at all, many groups are explicitly excluded.

  • So $82,000 is 10% of Google's annual revenues in Russia? Boy do they have good tax layers or what...

  • Google(/et al) is too busy with censorship and manipulation in its native USA market to also worry about Russia's lists of "hate speech."

  • EU and several countries... everyone wants a piece of the pie. For only a 82000$ fine google should buy them lunch also.

  • Damn! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I guess Russians using Google or Youtube to find deepfake porn of a shirtless Putin and a stallion are out of luck. Then again, was it really fake? The world may never know.

  • What will happen (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LenKagetsu ( 6196102 ) on Wednesday May 26, 2021 @03:12AM (#61422938)

    Google "LMAO we're not paying your fine. Go fuck yourself."
    Kremlin "We block you, comrade. Good day."
    >15 minutes later
    Kremlin "Why isn't the captcha loading? I cannot log in! COMRADE IVAN! THE INTERNET IS BROKEN!"
    Ivan "Recaptcha is owned by Google."
    Kremlin "screaming in russian"

  • Welcome the Internets

  • Bootleg Starlink modems are gonna be very popular in new Soviet Russia.

    • Blowing up Starlink satellites will become popular shortly after that. Russia does have the ability to knock out satellites. They just haven't done it recently.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tragedy ( 27079 )

        Let's not even go into the sheer idiocy of countries like the US, Russia and China testing these weapons in space in the first place. The simple fact is that the countries who have these weapons also have their own satellites that they rely on. Blowing up the Starlink network would generate a massive Kessler event, and no-one would get to have satellites, or possibly any space travel at all for hundreds of years.

  • Feels like this was thought up by some 70 year old ex-soviet bureaucrat who never really got into that whole internet fad.

  • over 60 posts and not a single "In Soviet Russia, something Google something something" post.

  • Weird that Google has no problem censoring content for the CCP, I wonder why they have grown a backbone and decided to oppose censorship in Russia.

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