Russia is reportedly planning to disconnect itself from Western internet services as technology companies block off the country during the invasion of Ukraine, Yahoo Sports reports.
Russia made an attempt to disconnect from the global internet in 2019 via the ‘sovereign Internet law’, which would also give the government much more control over the internet – similar to China’s ‘Great Firewall’.
Here's the rough translation of two widely shared documents related to measures of protecting Russian government websites (not disconnecting Russia from the Internet) pic.twitter.com/JlsEzuViQi
— Oleg Shakirov (@shakirov2036) March 7, 2022
Two documents above outline the measures the Russian government wants state-owned websites to take to “coordinate actions to defend telecommunication services on the internet.”
This includes switching from foreign hosting services to those based in Russia and removing code that did not originate in the country.
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IT’S ABOUT CYBERATTACKS?
Russia said it is a measure to take in the wake of cyberattacks that harm government websites.
Some theorize that Russia is preparing for massive cyberattacks on the global Internet. There is no proof of that, just theories. It’s possibly more likely that they want to keep their citizens ignorant. I just went on to Russian state-sponsored Ria Novosti and the propaganda was very extreme.
It’s also very concerning that Russia is willing to completely cut itself off from the rest of the world and from the world’s business, especially since they’ve recently aligned so closely with China.
Attacks have already been made on Kremlin websites, which were taken down by the hacking group Anonymous. Russian TV channels were also “hacked to play Ukrainian songs”, with the group declaring that it was “at war” with Russia.
UKRAINE WANTS THEM DISCONNECTED
Ukraine’s digital minister has made calls for Russia to be removed from the internet, demanding that Russia is sectioned off from the global internet entirely. ICANN and Starlink refused. There is a lot of pressure on Elon Musk to disconnect Starlink and he won’t do it. He’s supporting free speech.
That is a terrible idea. Are we really going to cut off 140 million people from the rest of the world?
This request was denied by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which said that “the internet is a decentralized system” and that its “mission does not extend to taking punitive actions, issuing sanctions, or restricting access against segments of the internet – regardless of the provocations”.
Nevertheless, private internet providers like Cogent Communications and Lumen have been shutting out Russian customers, citing “economic sanctions” and “the increasingly uncertain security situation”.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation stated that the decision sets a dangerous precedent, compromises security and privacy for users, and undermines trust in the networks and policies upon which the internet is built.
“Internet providers shouldn’t help the Russian government, or any government, keep people within an information bubble”, they added.
Russia is talking about disconnecting on March 11.
#Russia began active preparations for disconnection from the global Internet
No later than March 11, all servers and domains must be transferred to the #Russian zone. In addition, detailed data on the network infrastructure of the sites is being collected. pic.twitter.com/wOCdRqOJej
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 6, 2022
TRUDEAU IS PLANNING SOMETHING SIMILAR
Justin Trudeau is doing something very similar as he unilaterally bans Russian broadcasters. He’s also threatening to censor the Internet as well, using the language of a dictator. That’s a terrifying development.
Trudeau just banned Russian broadcasters from Canadian airwaves — no CRTC hearings, no process, just the orders of a dictator.
Now Trudeau is threatening to censor the Internet too. Using the identical language as Putin: to “fight disinformation”.
Who is copying whom? https://t.co/WTr71AiyXS
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) March 8, 2022
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