Putin bans VPNs to stop Russians accessing prohibited websites

[Deleted]

I don't think I could tell you a single website I've not had access to. On YouTube, some American cable providers and PPV providers do like to restrict their videos by country, but aside from stuff like that...nope. Can't think of a single website. You want to list a few, as an example?

Sure.

Few years ago I was visiting some questionable websites looking for certain pirated software, few websites opened popups. I was surprised to get error message that website is blocked by Estonian government. Looking at URL of popup, it was some gambling website. Later found out that there is a law that allows government to block any gambling websites that don't have license from Estonian government. Then saw similar error messages for few other websites.

On one website I frequent to get TV shows, UK visitors are all blocked.

Don't know if they are still up and if something else is blocked because I'm using Google's DNS. My ISP several times had issues with resolving IPs, so I switched to Google DNS a while back. Since government is using local DNS servers to block websites by redirecting them to government IPs, I don't know what is currently blocked.

So yep, blocking does exist at least in some EU countries.

[Noomz]

If you think western countries don't filter websites, I have elite oceanfront property to sell you in Afganistan. If you also think that blocking methods that allow to circumvent laws is bad, you must be ignoring logic to push your agenda.... which is exactly what you are doing with that "news".

Except my government doesn't prohibit me from expressing my views or reading the views it doesn't approve of. Hell, I can visit pretty much anything at any time. Some things are just harder to find because they're unlawful.

How exactly is the OP pushing an agenda and why are you calling it "news"? You know, outside of Russia we're actually allowed to criticize it without fearing the government will shut us down and jail us for it. Welcome to freedom, something Russians haven't really had the pleasure of enjoying for very long.

[caervek]

Under the law, internet providers will be required to block websites that offer VPNs and other proxy services.

Thanks for the clarification, I figured it was just a catholicity article.

[Noomz]

Sure.

Few years ago I was visiting some questionable websites looking for certain pirated software, few websites opened popups. I was surprised to get error message that website is blocked by Estonian government. Looking at URL of popup, it was some gambling website. Later found out that there is a law that allows government to block any gambling websites that don't have license from Estonian government. Then saw similar error messages for few other websites.

On one website I frequent to get TV shows, UK visitors are all blocked.

Don't know if they are still up and if something else is blocked because I'm using Google's DNS. My ISP several times had issues with resolving IPs, so I switched to Google DNS a while back. Since government is using local DNS servers to block websites by redirecting them to government IPs, I don't know what is currently blocked.

So yep, blocking does exist at least in some EU countries.

What you describe is entirely normal. Obviously Estonian government would want to block unlawful activities such as gambling sites that don't have a license. That's entirely reasonable.
But what Russia is blocking is far more than unlawful gambling and that's the actual point here. They're trying to remove anonymity in a country where political murder and being jailed for being opposition is often on the news. It's political freedom and expression that is being censored, not illegal gambling.

[Kujako]

Okay, so, how do we go about getting mmoc on the list of banned webpages in Russia?

With the number of Russian protagonists here, I think we're safe.

[Independent voter]

For all I know this Alexei Navalny is a KGB/FSB shill but still to put an opposition website on the secret banned website list?

That's like Trump banning Hillary's website.






Russia censors media by blocking websites and popular blog

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-news-websites

Russia has blocked three major opposition news websites as well as the popular blog of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in a media crackdown that comes amid Vladimir Putin's standoff with the west over Ukraine.

The government's media watchdog said late on Thursday it was enforcing an order by prosecutors to add three popular opposition news websites to its banned list, along with Navalny's Live Journal blog. A law came into force in February allowing the blocking of internet sites on the order of prosecutors without a court decision.

The pulling of the sites openly critical of the Kremlin came as state media is waging a full-on propaganda war in support of intervention in the Ukrainian crisis and the Kremlin's incursion into Crimea.

"There is an absolutely direct link with the events in Ukraine," said Alexander Podrabinek, a former dissident and a columnist for two of the newly banned websites, EJ.ru and Grani.ru.

The ban comes just two days after the chief editor of one of Russia's oldest and most popular news websites, Lenta.ru, was summarily dismissed on Wednesday over its Ukraine coverage.

Russian internet providers were on Friday blocking access to the blacklisted websites, although they were still accessible through internet providers outside Russia. Tips on how to get around the ban were circulating on social media.

"We will try to find out what we are being accused of and if we can restore the site's operations," said EJ.ru, which runs liberal opinion pieces.

The Roskomnadzor media watchdog said the sites were banned for "making calls for unlawful activity and participation in mass events held with breaches of public order," it said, apparently referring to opposition rallies.

[Tackhisis]

They're trying to remove anonymity...

Every popular messenger already has no anonymity, as it requires you to have a valid mobile number.

[kenthovind]

Please don't bury this in POLITICS mods.

"The biggest threat to Russia has always been Russians"

-- anonymous







http://www.zdnet.com/article/putin-b...use-in-russia/

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law prohibiting the use of technology that provides access to websites banned in the country.

The law signed on Sunday is already approved by the Duma, the lower house of parliament, and will come into effect on November 1, 2017.

See also: Apple removes VPN apps from China App Store to comply with government

It will ban the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) and other technologies, known as anonymisers, that allow people to surf the web anonymously.

Leonid Levin, the head of Duma's information policy committee, has said the law is not intended to impose restrictions on law-abiding citizens but is meant only to block access to "unlawful content", RIA news agency said.

The move follows a decision Apple made at the weekend to pull VPN apps from the App Store in China.

China has long operated the world's most sophisticated online censorship mechanism, known as the Great Firewall, and the use of VPNs by residents provides a loophole which can be used to circumvent the country's surveillance and blocking lists.

Popular social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, for example, are blocked in the country, with a pilot free-trade zone active in Shanghai in the past that allowed some access to such content, although still heavily restricted.

Services including Microsoft Outlook and Gmail have also been banned.

At the beginning of last year, China upgraded its Great Firewall and began to crack down on the use of VPNs within the Middle Kingdom.

The revamped internet filter made it difficult to work around the Facebook ban, and called it a move aimed at fostering the "healthy development" of the internet in China.

The Chinese government earlier this month ordered state-owned internet service providers, including China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom, to completely block access to VPNs by February 2018.

It followed a 14-month campaign the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched in January, aimed at cracking down on "unauthorised" web platforms and services the government does not approve of.

In what the Chinese government labelled a "clean up" which will "standardise the market order" and "promote healthy and orderly development", the program forces ISPs, VPN providers, datacentres, and content delivery networks to gain a licence and approval from Chinese officials to operate.

The campaign described VPNs as "illegal cross-border business issues" that need to be controlled, and deems it illegal for businesses to operate outside of their specific licence limitations.

USA bans illegal websites too, except instead of banning VPN, they swat you instead.

[Noomz]

Every popular messenger already has no anonymity, as it requires you to have a valid mobile number.

Two wrongs don't make a right.

- - - Updated - - -

USA bans illegal websites too, except instead of banning VPN, they swat you instead.

Except those illegal websites aren't related to peoples freedom of speech or the expression of that speech.

[Tackhisis]

Except those illegal websites aren't related to peoples freedom of speech

Freedom of speech is not above the law. Violent extremism and advocacy of illegal regime change and such are illegal.

[Doctor Amadeus]

Something the Russians have done recently that I agree with, I think VPNs should be banned, that goes along with spoofing phone numbers or getting anywhere online anonymously.

[Noomz]

Freedom of speech is not above the law. Violent extremism and advocacy of illegal regime change and such are illegal.

Are you being deliberately obtuse?

[Danner]

The people making this law have no idea how patently simple this "technology" is.
When a five-year-old can come up with the idea, you're literally making criminals out of five-year-olds.

Here is an ELI5 on "VPN technology":

Your Mother raises a new edict. "You're not allowed to talk to Billy anymore. He's not a bad influence on you."
You instantly omit this issue by simply having your other friend Adam to convey messages between you instead.
Adam is now a VPN. By russian law, Adam is illegal.

I'm not exactly sure what is gonna happen to Adam, but it probably involves polonium. Sucks to be Adam.

[Warning]

Oppressive regime does oppressive thing, bring out the Kremlin trolls and their false equivalencies and whataboutisms.

[Dentelan]

Putin is a such faggot.

- - - Updated - - -

It's adorable watching the authoritarians run in here to support such bullshit.

Why does Putin hate freedom so much?

Because we have president election next year, and Putin gona run another term (fifth i guess). His real rating is not more than 50-55%, maybe less, and is based on old people that believe everything TV says, new generation of russians that borned after 80-s want changes and hate him. He just want gain maximum control in any sphere just to sit in president chair and control those who can lead people against him. Thats just obvious.
Young russians opinion : "Syria ? F*ck this sh1t. Ukraine ? Let them do whatever they want. US ? Who cares? Lets just make changes inside country and stop playing this cool guy putin game".

[caervek]

Russia censors media by blocking websites and popular blog

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-news-websites

You realise this article is from three years ago yeah?

[cparle87]

K, so ignoring the clickbait title, Russia hasn't banned VPNs, just made it illegal to use them (or other methods) to gain access to sites banned in the country?

So making it illegal to use something for its intended purpose isn't banning it?

Reminds me of this movie I saw once. They go to this place, where they are told there are no rules. Then are promptly told there are, however, a large number of edicts, commandments, and instructions. Excellent doubletalk.

[caervek]

Here is an ELI5 on "VPN technology":

Your Mother raises a new edict. "You're not allowed to talk to Billy anymore. He's not a bad influence on you."
You instantly omit this issue by simply having your other friend Adam to convey messages between you instead.
Adam is now a VPN. By russian law, Adam is illegal.

I'm not exactly sure what is gonna happen to Adam, but it probably involves polonium. Sucks to be Adam.

Technically speaking, using that analogy Adam wouldn't be illegal, but you asking Adam to give a message to Billy on your behalf would get you in trouble. By comparison if you asked Adam to pass on a message to somebody called Jimmy and your mother is fine with him that would be fine with her.

[cparle87]

You realise this article is from three years ago yeah?

If those things have not been unbanned since then, it's still relevant to the topic being discussed.

[caervek]

So making it illegal to use something for its intended purpose isn't banning it? /confused

The intended purpose of VPNs was never to allow people to break laws. If you use a VPN for any legitimate purpose that's fine under the new law, it's only using them for illegal activity that's been criminalised. The OP is a bit ambiguous because of the clickbait article but there are plenty of better quality ones out there.