Russia Draws On Chinese Expertise And Technology To Clamp Down On Internet Users Even More

from the this-could-be-the-start-of-something-big-but-not-so-beautiful dept

Wed, Nov 30th 2016 3:24am — Glyn Moody

There seems to be some kind of unspoken competition between Russia and China to see who can clamp down on the Internet the most. Techdirt readers might like to offer their own views in the comments as to who is winning that unlovely race. But the days of repressive rivalry are drawing to a close; according to this article in the Guardian, Russia has decided that it would be much simpler to borrow some of China's ideas:

Russia has been working on incorporating elements of China's Great Firewall into the "Red Web", the country's system of internet filtering and control, after unprecedented cyber collaboration between the countries.

Just as important as the ideas is the actual technology: The Russians apparently see no other option than to invite Chinese heavyweights into the heart of its IT strategy. "China remains our only serious 'ally', including in the IT sector," said a source in the Russian information technology industry, adding that despite hopes that Russian manufacturers would fill the void created by sanctions "we are in fact actively switching to Chinese".
That Russian source is clearly trying to suggest that this new partnership is all the fault of the West for imposing those silly economic sanctions, and that this could have been avoided if everybody had stayed friends. But the coziness between Russia and China has been coming for a while, as their geopolitical ambitions align increasingly, so the collaboration over surveillance and censorship technologies would probably have happened anyway. The interesting question is how the new alliance might blossom if the future Trump administration starts to reduce its engagement with the international scene to concentrate on domestic matters. The new Sino-Russian digital partnership could be just the start of something much bigger, but probably not more beautiful.

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, china, great firewall, internet, russia

10 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Jigsy, 30 Nov 2016 @ 4:16am

>There seems to be some kind of unspoken competition between Russia and China to see who can clamp down on the Internet the most.

The joke's on them; the UK wins.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ninja (profile), 30 Nov 2016 @ 4:32am

Will they change their name to People's Russian Federation to pretend they care about their citizens and the Government is legit like China? Actually, they could just follow the west and call themselves a democracy without actually being one.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ninja (profile), 30 Nov 2016 @ 4:33am

Re:
Nope. North Korea wins. No internet, no problem!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2016 @ 4:43am

In Soviet Russia, China firewalls you.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Capt ICE Enforcer, 30 Nov 2016 @ 6:18am

The US question.
I ponder if we would be able to tell if and when the US government will start doing it against our own citizens. We have already seen how they shut down services in the area of the pipeline protest. Would it be far fetch to believe they are doing the same tactics using miss information and shutting down those who try to reach out for help... We already know how news agencies are usually bias and favor those who pay them the most...
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Tromp, 30 Nov 2016 @ 6:44am

The Greatest
What? We can't let the Russians and Chinese beat us! Anything they can do, we can do better! Time to make America great!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2016 @ 8:06am

Re:
UK is certainly in the same league. But comparing absolutism is an exercise in futility.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Nov 2016 @ 8:09am

Re:
Probably more in the vein of "Russian Democratic Nation". Everybody loves a good juxtaposition.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 1 Dec 2016 @ 9:30am

Re: The Greatest
Obama had eight years to expand surveillance.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 1 Dec 2016 @ 1:46pm

Methinks its about time to lay down the law, and tell every nation on earth that if they want a censored internet, they will have to build their own, because they no longer have access to the first internet.

Cut the assholes out completely. Perhaps then they - and the people who live there - will see the error of their ways.
[ link to this | view in thread ]