Putin bans VPNs to stop Russians accessing prohibited websites

[Independent voter]

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.

[Deleted]

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".

[Strangebrew]

I don't see how this is any different from how the socialist party here successfully banned and censored websites for the sake of private american corporations honestly.

[caervek]

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.

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?

[Elim Garak]

75% of the OP is about China.

[Deleted]

I wonder when Russia will be not-so-corrupt.

I'll hold my breath until then.

[Independent voter]

Russian Laws Will Ban VPNs And Force Chat Users To Register, Giving Censors An Edge

https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetwb.../#2de98bf62d7e



By year's end, Russian web users will no longer have access to certain portions of the web via virtual or proxy networks, nor be able to use chatting apps incognito.

President Vladimir Putin has signed into law two "controversial" pieces of legislation regulating how Russians can operate online, RadioFreeEurope first reported Sunday. Signed June 29 and published June 30, the laws were advanced for the stated purpose of stemming the spread of prohibited or extremist content online.

One law, scheduled to go into effect November 1, will ban the use of internet proxy services in the country, including virtual private networks (VPNs), which have often helped users access to websites banned by the state. Under the law, internet providers will be required to block websites that offer VPNs and other proxy services.

Another law, affecting Russians starting January 1, will order chat apps to identify users by their phone numbers, which many apps enthusiastically encourage but don't demand. Facebook Messenger and other chat apps will now be required to collect users' phone numbers, and to limit access for users who spread illegal content.

Proxy networks have increasingly been the target of governments seeking to limit residents' access to online content that's un-approved by the state. In seeming response to ongoing pressure from Chinese authorities, Apple yanked all of the VPN apps from its China offerings this month.

As RadioFreeEurope noted, the new Russian laws will go into effect months ahead of the country's March 2018 presidential election, in which Putin is "widely expected to seek and win a new six-year term."

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75% of the OP is about China.

How about this one then?

[tss]

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".

What the fuck? lol

[Machismo]

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

Why does Putin hate freedom so much?

[tss]

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 what, you think they're just making the sites extra illegal? The wording is that the technology is prohibited.

- - - Updated - - -

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

Yeah, all one of them. Real crowd there.

[Elim Garak]

How about this one then?

Same shit from a different source. This time even more incorrect. The use of VPN and Proxies is not banned. It's when you use VPN and Proxies to access illegal content - that's what the law is about. And in case you wonder what illegal content is: terrorist stuff, child porn, drug pushers, piracy.

- - - Updated - - -

So what, you think they're just making the sites extra illegal? The wording is that the technology is prohibited.

The wording is in English.

[caervek]

So what, you think they're just making the sites extra illegal? The wording is that the technology is prohibited.

No, the wording is that "use of technology that provides access to websites banned in the country" is "prohibited".

That doesn't say that use of VPNs is prohibited, which make sense as thousands of Russian businesses and citizens use/require VPN use, and the official statement from Moscow was "the law is not intended to impose restrictions on law-abiding citizens but is meant only to block access to unlawful content". Hence my complaint about the clickbait title and article (which is 90% about China not Russia).

In lieu of a reliable source it seems that VPNs aren't banned just the use of them in an illegal way, which makes sense because if the law actually banned any technology that provided access to banned websites that would also ban Internet Explorer and computers lol.

[Deleted]

The UK is planning the same kind of shit.

[Varvara Spiros Gelashvili]

The UK is planning the same kind of shit.

We can dislike the action of both governments...

[Manabomb]

But guys, Russia totally isn't a fascist oligarchy that we should totally be friends with despite multiple military sources stating that Russia is the most daunting enemy the United States has ever faced and multiple intelligence sources stating they meddled in our election.

This law, however, is a little weird. The way its worded tries to make it sound that if you are caught doing something illegal with a VPN, its somehow more illegal? Definitely sounds more like a political move to target VPN users and crack down on the people.

- - - Updated - - -

Same shit from a different source. This time even more incorrect. The use of VPN and Proxies is not banned. It's when you use VPN and Proxies to access illegal content - that's what the law is about. And in case you wonder what illegal content is: terrorist stuff, child porn, drug pushers, piracy.

- - - Updated - - -


The wording is in English.

So it makes accessing these websites more illegal, somehow? Again, it seems definitely more like a political move to target VPN users than it does any beneficial legislation.

[Ripster42]

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?

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

So proxies are banned.

Another law, affecting Russians starting January 1, will order chat apps to identify users by their phone numbers, which many apps enthusiastically encourage but don't demand. Facebook Messenger and other chat apps will now be required to collect users' phone numbers, and to limit access for users who spread illegal content.

And no anonymity on the internet.

[Deleted]

If you think western countries don't filter websites

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?

[cubby]

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.

Why would you think Russia internet "news" would be reshifted to politics? What could hacking have to do with politics in the United States. I mean, except for the president, the 2016 election, and our treasonous first family there really isn't anything political about it.

Also, it's adorable that this "article" with "news" in it attempts to purport that Putin wants to limit Russian internet activity and not be duplicitous. Almost as adorable as this entire thread and your little agenda.

Russia is on a world-wide political hacking/influence war. And they will lose.

[Manabomb]

Why would you think Russia internet "news" would be reshifted to politics? What could hacking have to do with politics in the United States. I mean, except for the president, the 2016 election, and our treasonous first family there really isn't anything political about it.

Also, it's adorable that this "article" with "news" in it attempts to purport that Putin wants to limit Russian internet activity and not be duplicitous. Almost as adorable as this entire thread and your little agenda.

Russia is on a world-wide political hacking/influence war. And they will lose.

They are already losing. The only reason why puppet Trump was even considered was because everyone thought he was crazy enough to veto Russia sanctions.

Owait.

[Elim Garak]

So it makes accessing these websites more illegal, somehow? Again, it seems definitely more like a political move to target VPN users than it does any beneficial legislation.

Accessing those sites was never illegal, it was illegal for ISPs to allow such sites to be hosted on their servers and not block access to them if they are hosted somewhere else.