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The Internet

Russians Are Finding Ways Around Putin's Internet Blockade (bloomberg.com) 75

Posted by msmash from the tussle-continues dept.
Russians are rapidly turning to internet services that cloak their location to help bypass restrictions on accessing foreign social media and news sites. From a report: Providers of virtual private networks, or VPNs, are recording a surge in usage from Russia after the Kremlin cracked down on Facebook and other services as part of a broader effort to silence dissent and limit information about its invasion of Ukraine. "In the past week, we saw traffic to our website from Russia increase by around 330% week over week," Harold Li, vice president of ExpressVPN, said in an email to Bloomberg on Wednesday. As of Tuesday, Russian interest in VPNs was more than eight times pre-invasion levels, according to data gathered by Top10VPN. Usage peaked at more than 10 times on March 5, the day after Facebook and Twitter were blocked by Russian authorities.
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Russians Are Finding Ways Around Putin's Internet Blockade More

Russians Are Finding Ways Around Putin's Internet Blockade

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  • Don't Block Russia (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jwhyche ( 6192 ) on Wednesday March 09, 2022 @11:46AM (#62340325) Homepage

    This illustrates why we should not be banning Russian people from the internet. This week several backbones have stopped carrying Russian traffic. I think this is a mistake. If we silence Russia from the internet we are not silencing the Russian government. We are just silencing the Russian people.

    • Not only are we silencing the Russian people, we're also cutting them off from their main source of news not directly controlled by Putin. I'm all for some of the sanctions we've imposed. Removing the only form of non-Russian news from the people of Russia seems counter-intuitive to what it is the western governments seem to be saying they want to accomplish.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ftobin ( 48814 )

        I find it hard to believe the proportion of information Russians receive or send outbound that is truthful will be be more now given the Russian news laws recently enacted, regardless of what other countries block. Facts simply lose out to lies, with studies showing this.

        And let's not forget this is a war, with Russians leveraging the internet to attack opponents' systems.

        If you want them to receive information, BBC shortwave radio is a one-way transmission that accomplishes your goal.

      • Not only are we silencing the Russian people, we're also cutting them off from their main source of news not directly controlled by Putin.

        As crazy as it sounds in the year 2022, if foreign news started having a real impact on the Russian people, it would just become illegal for Russians to view foreign news.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by evanh ( 627108 )

      It's Putin doing the blocking.

      • Yes, that may be the case... However, I expect their may be some NATO military subs around some Internet Cables to either prevent Russian Subs from cutting of the internet, or to Cut off Russian Internet, if needed.

        This whole situation really stinks. While it is obvious that Russia is the Aggressor and the Bad Guy in this conflict (Where other ones has a much thicker gray line). They are too powerful of a nation to just bully into submission, however their government structure is very poor relaying on a f

        • You don't need to cut the cables. Russia plans to cut itself from global DNS on 11.03.2022.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by evanh ( 627108 )

          It is just Putin. The so called 'backbone'ners aren't doing blocking.

          At worst there is a lose of top capacity. And that'll be easily rectified by others if there is a desire to replace them.

        • (only 3% can read English fluently, according to the stats I've found, and other non-Russian languages are far behind that)

          But many can read Ukrainian (at least enough to get something reasonable out of it).

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by hawk ( 1151 )

          > (only 3% can read English fluently,

          BBC has reported a massive increase in the hits to their Russian language website.

        • Most people are lazy enough that they would rely on secondhand information rather than find alternate news sources. They might assume Russian media is lies, but the secondary sources are just as likely to be repeated propaganda.

          With Google Translate, the language barrier is not that bad. In the early days of the conflict, it was very easy to understand Ukranian tweets using Twitter's built-in Google Translate. English to Russian probably shares a similar level of accuracy. But it does require intentiona

        • Too few Russians use the Internet to review foreign sources of information (only 3% can read English fluently, according to the stats I've found, and other non-Russian languages are far behind that)

          Both British [bbcrussian.com] and American [golosameriki.com] state-sponsored news is available in Russian. Also Euronews [euronews.com].

          And everyone doesn't have to read alternative news to make an impact. Doubtless that the previous viewers of Dozhd and other banned Russian outlets are curious enough to find another source. Even Kremlin insiders might want a way to get some news from a different filter.

    • And when the Russian people start to actually notice that the rest of the world seems to have disappeared maybe they will consider investigating what happened and start fixing the problem.
      • Lots of time for introspection then. That would be nice, but pretty sure they will be hit with enough fake news to make sure Russia looks like paradise. North Korea style. What a mess.

    • Agreed - but it's not just about "silencing" them or not. Apparently there are a LOT of Russians who believe the narrative that Putin is "saving Ukraine", and that the reports of Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and citizens are propaganda. Doing everything possible to ensure that Russian citizens have access to outside information sources might undermine the support Putin is enjoying from those he has succeeded in gaslighting.

      • If a mother prefers state propaganda over what her daughter tells and shows her, nothing she reads anywhere will get her to change her mind. https://www.bbc.com/news/world... [bbc.com]

        • With all our free media, the west bought "accidental collateral damage" as an acceptable explanation for hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths in Iraq. How can we expect Russians to feel differently when we show them the destruction their war causes, as long as they feel their cause of taking out the baddies is just just as Americans felt the cause of taking out Hussein was just?

          The only hope is that Russia is getting stupid about their lies and playing up the "Ukrainians are bombing themselves to make i

      • Apparently there are a LOT of Russians who believe the narrative that Putin is "saving Ukraine", and that the reports of Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and citizens are propaganda.

        As the other poster mentioned, if you won't believe your own child when they tell you they're being bombed by the invading country, no amount of news will change that. The one thing which might change that perception is what Ukraine did. They set up a hotline for parents [euromaidanpress.com] to call their sons who have been captured in Ukra

      • Apparently there are a LOT of Russians who believe the narrative that Putin is "saving Ukraine", and that the reports of Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and citizens are propaganda. Doing everything possible to ensure that Russian citizens have access to outside information sources might undermine the support Putin is enjoying from those he has succeeded in gaslighting.

        Millions and millions of America believe right-wing propaganda - Be it the election being "stolen" or vaccines being harmful or Hunte

        • Hunter Biden nonsense

          Any time someone is pointing the finger at something bad happening in Ukraine, it should be immediately obvious that it is likely Russian propaganda. How an entire wing of politics chose to ignore that just for political gain just shows how ready some are to join Russia's side. The far right in the US is already pushing pro-Russia information.

    • Seriously, why should we care? Russia has not given a single fuck about any other country than Russia since the dawn of the SU.
      After the fall, they still don't.
      Many of them still long for the good old days of Soviet Russia. I work with a few Russians here in Europe. Granted, my sample size is small, but all 3 of them said they thought communism was better.
      We are better off if we stop buying their shit and stop selling them shit.

      Of course the US is also pretty fucked up these days. I never imagined I would s

      • the entire Republican party put Russia ahead of the USA and the Democrats would be the one wanting to fight them.

        The same thing happened when Clinton did the Yugoslavia war thing. Most politicians are insincere, talking nonsense.

      • After the fall, they still don't.

        COuldn't agree more, and that's what drives me up the wall with these Russians.

        Always it is their "sensitivities", their "interests", their "humiliation", and always is it somebody else's fault. Guess what, others have interests too.

        Boo fuckhing hoo. So after 50 years of oppressing them, their neighbours would rather prefer to keep them at a an arm's length. Big fucking surprise. They should get over it, stop whingeing and fix their own fucking country. Like the Baltics have done, like Poland and man

      • Seriously, why should we care? Russia has not given a single fuck about any other country than Russia since the dawn of the SU.

        I care because I have Russian friends that I like.

    • This illustrates why we should not be banning Russian people from the internet. This week several backbones have stopped carrying Russian traffic. I think this is a mistake. If we silence Russia from the internet we are not silencing the Russian government. We are just silencing the Russian people.

      You're correct, that leaves only one source of information. It's not a perfect solution, but given that they're bombing civilian building and committing war crimes left and right, we can either sit around where they murder children, rape any women they can get their hands on, and bomb civilian buildings until we find a perfect solution or we do what we can as fast as we can to inflict pain on the Russian people.

      When we do an airstrike, we're not bombing the leader who started the war, it's soldiers, oft

      • Well put!

        I value Ukranian lives more than I value Russian free speech and information flow.

        And that is why, in this whole absurd mess, it makes sense.

    • If we silence Russia from the internet we are not silencing the Russian government. We are just silencing the Russian people.

      I think you can argue this either way and there's no way to really know the best thing to do, but I think back to my own behavior as an American, and when we've had military conflicts and I'm reading my daily news diet of American media, I've never gone out looking for differing foreign points of view. But if suddenly my daily life changed the rest of the world cut America off from th

    • Partially I agree, but after having read this BBC story, I wonder if Russians reading foreign news will change their minds, if a mother won't believe her own daughter... https://www.bbc.com/news/world... [bbc.com]

    • Oh bullshit.
      Those fuckers have had access to Western media for decades now. It's not made one bit of difference. They still vote for Putin and they still only value Russia. That won't change, regardless of how often you apologize for their behavior.

    • I wholeheartedly agree with you on this.

      The people of Russia has the right to know why their loved ones are sent to Ukraine. They also have the right to know what consequences those loved ones are causing overseas. But most important of all; they needed to hear President Zelensky when he pleaded to the Russian people.

      But the truth is... sanctions on a government always means an appropriate sanction on its people. Why? Because those people voted for the people that hold office. They were also the people

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      I doubt it makes a difference. Just like China, all the internet companies will be required to censor stuff that little monkey Putini doesn't like.

    • While I completely agree we should not ban Russians from the Internet, these companies are making business decisions based upon profit and loss.

      These companies have determined that doing business in Russia is no longer economically feasible and are cutting their losses. It has nothing to do with retribution or idealism, its just business.

    • The companies are not "banning Russia", they're ending business relationships that are a danger to their employees, risky from a business point of view and increasingly plain operationally difficult. Neither can the carriers guarantee their services, nor can their customers guarantee payment. The risk of running afoul of international sanctions or Russian "truthiness" laws is high. And if you don't have people on the ground in Russia, how do you deal with problems?

      This article says people are finding ways a

  • we don't know about any war,
    but give me my FBTV ...

    • The only people using FB are stupid as fuck boomers spreading fake news. And Russians helping to spread the same. No one else is on FB.

  • I would like to find a way to read Russian websites blocked in (Western) Europe because I love to read ridicoulous lies. Those from the West are getting more and more boring. Except for Victoria "F*ck the EU" Nuland of course. She is sooo funny! (Except for the people killed by her politics ⦠that is.)

  • Ukraine has been abandoned and is about to surrender. Moscow will rejoice that they have found this. I will forever be ashamed of how the west abandoned Ukraine.

    • Ukraine has been abandoned and is about to surrender.

      I think it's going to turn out to be exactly the opposite-- Ukraine will never surrender, Russia will soon occupy the country, but they'll need to install a large military presence because Ukrainians will continue to fight. I think Russia accidentally started a multi-decade conflict with no easy way out, and our temporary sanctions are our new foreign policy with Russia.

      Alternatively, Putin will just raze anything of value, claim a great success and leave

      • Alternatively, Putin will just raze anything of value, claim a great success and leave.

        That's the thing. The Ukrainians don't want Putin to raze anything of value and leave. It's an awful outcome for them. Doubly so because, even if they tolerate such a thing, it's clear that they will never get to be part of NATO and they will be constantly subject to threats from Putin. Ukraine can't be a state without a security assurance and they have been so firmly rejected by the west that they are now looking to Putin. To be clear, I think it's a crying shame, but that's the decision our leaders h

      • At the rate things are going, in four months the entire invasion force will be destroyed.

      • Alternatively, Putin will just raze anything of value, claim a great success and leave.

        Based upon his previous war efforts, Putin won't win this invasion. But he's not going to lose either. It seems Putin's strategy is to figuratively break the enemy's bones, enough to disable but not to destroy. Pretty much the movie stereotype of how the Mafia terrorizes its victims, to teach the lesson that they must pay up or worse will come.

    • TFA is about information flow. Capturing land won't solve such. Russia is quickly removing it's last relevence to world economy, and nobody but Russians will care. It doesn't matter where the flags are raised along this war for land - the internet can live without the trolls, hackers and dunces that originate from Russia, there are plenty remaining.

      • TFA is about information flow. Capturing land won't solve such. Russia is quickly removing it's last relevence to world economy, and nobody but Russians will care. It doesn't matter where the flags are raised along this war for land - the internet can live without the trolls, hackers and dunces that originate from Russia, there are plenty remaining.

        Yes but the Ukrainian people can't live with all being dead in the process of pursing an alliance with western Europe that gives them a security guarantee if that possibility doesn't actually exist. The NATO membership has been dangled in front of Ukraine for years. But it's clear that it will never happen. So now do they want to die fighting for nothing or give in to Putin and get to live for something? If the US/EU/NATO made an honest commitment to Ukrainian security I have no doubt they would fight t

    • Ukraine is being sacrificed so that NATO can expand their presence in the surrounding regions and enjoy the advantages of being welcome. In effect, Ukraine is being offered up as the sacrificial lion so that the Western powers can take up a more advantageous position. The new Axis is also maneuvering to take fullest possible advantage of the current situation, but is encountering significantly more difficulty in achieving their primary goals. They may not be able to subjugate Ukraine, but they can (and a

    • Ukraine has been abandoned and is about to surrender.

      As long as Ukraine doesn't run out of javelin missiles, the armor/tanks on the ground are doomed.

      • There is no doubt about this. But at some point, the Ukrainians will be tired of taking so many losses when they feel abandoned. And then they will negotiate with Putin a deal that is good for Ukraine and bad for NATO. When I made the original post, things were at their worst moment. The *good* news is that here in the US there is increasing pressure on our politicians to do more. The Biden administration may have to cave to pressure and help transfer fighter jets. There's a question of whether they a

        • the Ukrainians will be tired of taking so many losses when they feel abandoned.

          Maybe. This is not the look of someone who feels abandoned [youtube.com]. Zelensky had a couple days when he looked like he felt abandoned (because of the air support thing), but in the last couple days as supplies have made it, he's cheered up.

          The air is a different question. Russia has chosen not to send in their full strength (who knows why). If they did, they would have hundreds of bombers pounding Kiev with tons and tons of bombs. The Russian air force would take real losses, but Kiev would be rubble. Each plane can

          • I think I understand why. But you might say that I'm a cynical conspiracy theorist. The US recognizes that Putin will escalate not based on some *action* we take but based on his own assessment of his ability to win. As long as he thinks he can win with conventional war and get everything he wants why would he use nukes? Even an irrational actor can probably follow that much logic. In the early days many people were talking about how Ukraine would fight to the death over eight to ten years. The (arrog

            • It seems a bit too bloody that Biden would choose such a grim strategy, but I haven't seen a hypothesis that is more convincing.

              Your idea that Biden (or the US government) is still adapting to the new situation is something I agree with.

              • It's the strategy we used in Afghanistan

                • At this point, it's becomes clear that the US wanted to give planes to Ukraine, but Biden personally cancelled the deal. So from now, I think we can conclude that there wasn't a particular military reason to not give them planes, but rather some calculus that only lives inside Biden's head, and may or may not match reality.

                  Regardless, the Ukrainians have seemed to stabilize in the North, and in the next week I'm watching to see if they are able to relieve Mariupol or not. That is the next thing to watch for

                  • There might be intelligence that hasn't yet been shared! I donated to Biden's campaign and I voted for him. But I've been very critical of his handling of Ukraine. He keeps talking about not wanting to escalate but Russia escalates every day. The calculus may only live in Biden's head or it may only live in classified intelligence briefings. We'll know soon because, at some point, those briefings will have to be shared with select members of congress. And we can see whether or not those who receive th
  • How many of these are so they can like a bunch of pointless shit on Instagram, I truly hope those numbers are small but if I was a betting man..

  • All week long I've been finding ways to get around blockade to read Russian news, turns out Russians need to get around blockade to read our news too? Curtain works both ways. I don't know who's blocking what in Russia, but I know it's not Putin blocking RT and Russian bloggers on youtube.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by freax ( 80371 )

      In most countries you can just use 8.8.8.8 as nameserver. That or just do what I wrote here [pvanhoof.be].

  • Just thought I ought to post here that as a EU citizen, I also am forced to finding ways around the EU's internet blockade. Believe it or not, it comes down to choosing Serbia as my VPN endpoint...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by freax ( 80371 )

      To get around the blockade of for example RT you can just use 8.8.8.8 as nameserver in most countries. Else indeed use a VPN service. /. ain't blocked here (.be). No idea about your country.

  • In Soviet Russia ... (Score:3)

    by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 ) on Wednesday March 09, 2022 @03:38PM (#62341297) Journal
    ... Government blocks the Social Media.

    In Soviet America ... it is the total opposite!

  • The internet routes around errors.
  • You best put a killswitch on that VPN... you won't have Disney knocking down your door!

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