Russia Reaches The Censorship Endgame: Banning VPNs, Tor And Web Proxies
from the ghouls,-all-gathered-in-one-place dept
We have been tracking for some time the increasingly repressive measures that the Russian authorities have brought in to censor and control the Internet. Of course, Techdirt readers know that an easy way to circumvent both censorship and control is to use tools like VPNs and Tor. Unfortunately, the Russian authorities also know this, and are now calling for action against them, as TorrentFreak reports:
Speaking at Infoforum-2015, Russian MP Leonid Levin, who is deputy head of the Duma Committee on information politics, indicated that access to anonymization and circumvention tools such as TOR, VPNs and even web proxies, needs to be restricted.
Levin also called for Roskomnadzor, the state agency that oversees communications and the Internet, to be given more powers to intervene. If the views of Vadim Ampelonskogo, Roskomnadzor's chief press officer, are anything to go by, that is likely to have serious consequences for online freedom:
Describing the Tor network as a "den of criminals" and "ghouls, all gathered in one place", Ampelonskogo said Roskomnadzor would find a solution to block anonymous networks if it was supported by a relevant regulatory framework.
What's troubling about this latest call for even tighter control is that it was entirely predictable. Once governments start blocking sites and restricting freedom of speech online, people inevitably respond by using VPNs and Tor to circumvent these measures. And that means that if governments want their laws to be effective, at some point they will take direct action against circumvention tools. That's why it's particularly worrying that Western governments have started down this road: it implies that they, too, might one day try to ban VPNs and Tor.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: censorship. vladimir putin, free speech, leonid levin, proxies, roskomnadzor, russia, tor, vpns
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
'If we can't listen in, you're not allowed to talk.'
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: 'If we can't listen in, you're not allowed to talk.'
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: 'If we can't listen in, you're not allowed to talk.'
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: 'If we can't listen in, you're not allowed to talk.'
I cannot understand how we've let it come this far, it doesnt feel like freedom, it feels like an open prison with just enough illusion of freedom to fool or placate the many.........helpless that our lives are not our own on the whim of others, as if we're owned, invisible chains.......its a very helpless feeling over our own lives, followed by "how dare they" think my life theres, that last bit represents itself as opposition.......such as this comment/opinion being said
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
If such things are meant to punish pirates, then they do an abysmal job of it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
He already mentioned the **AAs.
Now, are you wanting an actual discussion, or are you the moron who thinks that anyone who doesn't bow at their feet must be a pirate?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
You mean criminals like Disney who for years have used public domain stories every time they needed an idea for a new movie, but who have completely perverted copyright law in order to keep anything they have ever made from becoming public domain?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
I used a Canon to shoot a fly. Well, a dragonfly. Turned out very nicely.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
No, it will just be made illegal for private use unless you can prove you need it for one of a narrowly defined set of reasons. Then you'll have to register, get a permit (which you'll have to pay for) and agree to various restrictions, like having the VPN keeps logs of your activity.
Basically, using a VPN will become like carrying a gun, except that a VPN permit will probably be harder to get...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: poof
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
http://rt.com/news/232795-kaspersky-hackers-banks-security/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Even if the target is actual criminals, rather than regular citizens, the collateral damage is huge, as while a handful of criminals might be slightly inconvenienced by this change, the vast majority of those affected will have been law-abiding people.
No, criminals might be the excuse, but based upon the ratio of criminals to citizens affected by something like this, the move is either incredibly stupid in it's methods at stopping crime, or quite effective at stomping out free speech.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
http://rt.com/news/232795-kaspersky-hackers-banks-sec urity/"
I seriously doubt that Russia has changed so much that organized crime is running with much less than official sanction. Never thought of it before but it wouldn't surprise me if that government was actually funding it.
I like the dig at the Ukraine. Makes me wonder if someone else is being paid by the Russia government?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Let's say person A is using a VPN to route around government censorship of political speech. Person B is using the tool to commit an actual crime against company C. However, company C is also using VPNs to try to protect against attacks in the first place and to allow remote communication with its own offices.
Blocking the tool stops all 3 uses of the tool - even though 2 of them are perfectly legitimate. Of course, the government may make an "exception" to company C's usage of the tool, but person A is still censored, and the government aren't likely to grant exceptions to A. On top of that, the criminals with millions of incentives are going to be better able to route around the censorship than someone who's already downtrodden and persecuted.
So, whether it's the announced aim or not, censorship will most likely happen.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
After all, they can't tell the difference between ordinary and criminal communications without listening in.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/news/2002/01/28/security-study.htm
Yeah...2002, I can't find the actually easy to find study of hacking per country that was really serious and totally neutral when speaking of the actors, as I am. It's funny how it seems to be scrubbed. It was shown as a bar graph, Israel's colour was gray in the graph and it's rectangle would rise much much higher than any other country, that was in 2010 or so, before Netanyahu started a scrubbing war against "New Antisemitism" online in 2011.
Anyway, you can do the test yourself, get the whole country block lists at i-blocklist.com or .net for all the countries you want, install IPBlock or Peerblock depending on if you use linux or windows. Run computer behind no router, especially no router flashed with ddwrt or tomato. And see for yourself.
China are also very annoying gnats, but one has to remember its not because it comes from said country, that the computer in said country is trying to contact your computer with a human being sitting in front of that computer in said country. Easier said for a huge country like China with not so great consumer level tech though...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
see: "How Russia's mafia is taking over Israel's underworld"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/special_report/1998/03/98/russian_mafia/69521.stm
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Net community reaches censorship endgame
The freenet is built for this shit; it's aim is to enable anonymous, censorship-resistent communication on the internet, in order to effectively enforce basic rights on the internet, especially freedom of press.
What is the Freenet ?
Function
The Freenet is an anonymous P2P network, separated from the web, constructed as a decentralized, anonymous data storage: All participants of the Freenet network provide a portion of their storage and bandwidth to the network.
All internal processes use this network; these internal processes are decentralized, completely anonymous and encrypted. Everything that is being uploaded is cut into chunks during the process and then distributed across the network. The chunks are then saved redundantly on thousands of participating computers across the globe.
When being downloaded the chunks are pieced together again into a single file. There is no need for the uploader to stay on the network after upload. Uploads are being kept within the Freenet as long as there is a sufficient demand. Spam resistence is ensured by means of a web of trust. It is possible to use pseudonyms which are recognizable by others. The 'Darknet' mode allows for connections exclusevely with friends.
Use
The Freenet is designed to allow for anonymous, censorship resistant communications of any kind: it is possible to send e-mails with encrypted content and meta data, the Freenet enables secure peer-to-peer communication and censorship resistant publishing even in a hostile environment; the Freenet provides for anonymity using dependable pseudonyms and enables decentralized publishing without a single-point-of-failure.
The Freenet offers a Darknet-mode providing secure communication among friends: used in this manner it is not even possible to see that the Freenet is being used.
Additionally the Freenet could be seen as one of the last resorts of anonymous filesharing: each and every type of filesharing haven been subject to crackdowns by specialized law enforcement agencies around the world, resulting in law suits for filersharers.
The Freenet does not have such an unfortunate history. Any knowledge of what is being held within the cache of ones own node could plausibly be denied since everything in there is encrypted and dynamically forwarded.
In addition, it is not only possible to anonymously upload files but also websites, to programm anonymously via the Freenet, do micro-blogging like on Twitter, but anonymously, and to discuss anonymously in forums.
Political Significance
In times of global, complete surveillance next to political solutions also technical solutions are needed, in order to win the fight for press of freedom and other basic rights. The Freenet creates the technical background, which is needed for this, because the Freenet makes censorship and surveillance too expensive for enforcing it politically and to unpracticably for enforcing it in practice.
The Freenet enables a journalist in a countrywide newspaper, maintaining a point-of-contact to anonymous sources without requiring lots of infrastructure on the side of the journalist or the source.
The freenet enables a whistleblower in a medium-sized state-contractor, sending documents to a journalist and being available for questions to verify their origin without disclosing the whistleblower’s real identity to the journalist or anyone else. This is priceless, because otherwise it's not possible anymore to report, if there are strong interests against this, as otherwise it would be possible to de-anonymize everyone, who wants to publish
anything.
Additionally relying on the Freenet is one of the strongest moves, which the filesharing community can do now facing the increasing, massive attacks against the filesharing community – just think of all those international raids against the filesharing community or the leaked strategy paper how Hollywood plans to act against the filesharing community the next years.
But regarding Freenet the anonymous filesharing aspect is just a side effect of the fight for real freedom of press, because where a filesharer can be sued, a whistleblower can't feel safe, either.
Download
On the project's main site there is a download button for the newest client version, as you can see. - https://freenetproject.org/index.html
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Net community reaches censorship endgame
Eventually if that falls through, there's always steganography. But the data rate for that sucks.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Net community reaches censorship endgame
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Net community reaches censorship endgame
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
US looking to cripple encryption too
http://youtu.be/yaylQmnXztU?t=11m45s
"we're going to have to have a public debate [on non-backdoored encryption]"
Prepare for another propaganda push against encryption tools.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: US looking to cripple encryption too
"Any form of encryption with a backdoor or other fault is a failed form of encryption. There is no such thing as a 'safe backdoor', because if one group can find and use it, it's a matter of 'when', not 'if', that other groups will do the same."
There, debate's over.
Also, encryption is not something that deserves a 'public debate', as it's a highly technical and complex subject, and unless people have been paying attention, it's far too easy to get confused or fall for utterly bogus claims(like, say, someone claiming that 'Golden keys' do not completely compromise security). If a discussion or debate is going to be had, it needs to occur between people who know what they are talking about, and can make their arguments based upon what is, rather than what they think should be.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: US looking to cripple encryption too
Which is the only kind law enforcement and surveillance agencies like.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Censorship Endgame
Censorship that stops at Internet technologies is a censorship that falls short of thought control.
Wait until the people who demonstrate they have wrong thoughts are imprisoned, executed or otherwise punished or 're-educated'.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Censorship Endgame
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
What about all those Russian hackers?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Congratulations, you've described the road to serfdom.
Obedience to the rules MUST be forced.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mother Russia, for all its faults, is ensuring that communications remain civilized by ensuring they remain legal. This is government at its very best - a blend of concern for the ordinary citizen, combined with the steely resolve to deny the criminal his tools. It transcends bureaucracy and expresses the benevolence of an older brother towards an uneducated sibling.
/sarcasm. For now.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Excepting of course all government communications, which remain encrypted, and protected by secrecy laws. This protects the criminals in government from the wrath of the people.
/Should be sarcasm, but unfortunately isn't.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
As history continues to show
nothing got bought/sold faster than "prohibited" alcohol;
and nothing will get encryption/tor/vpn usage to spread faster than this ban.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Funny, that's exactly how I'd describe the Roskomnadzor.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Den of criminals
In the end, the more the Internet is restricted, the less Tor is a "den of criminals".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Den of criminals
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Russia gone rogue
Beware
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Snowden, Manning, the various secret trade agreements and completely bullshit laws--it's not like the public cares about any of this shit for more than five minutes.
Robbing the public of tools they will never actually use certainly earns countries "big baddie" points, but in actual impact it's effectively zero.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Tor-integrated Proxy
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The funniest bit is, is that just like the article says "people inevitably respond by using VPNs and Tor to circumvent these measures" that are implemented by the government themselves.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]