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Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

reuters.com

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Re: Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

#71

Post by dmix »

selune wrote: post #34
nabla9 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real power in Russia is within two cities, Moscow and St. Petersburg. It's the urban and relatively highly educated population in these two cities that decides the fate of Russia, not the majority.

I might be pessimistic because I am in close contact with that demographic (lots of my friends are young, educated, comparatively well-off guys from Moscow working in tech) and, pardon my French, they decide shit. Oligarchs decide the fate of Russia.

Yet the oligarch’s power plays and Russia’s tough posturing seems popular among the population. Or at least tolerable to the average person.

How do you account for that?

Re: Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

#72

Post by zanny »

egao1980 wrote: post #59
walrus01 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Network engineer perspective: It looks to me like the Russian government wants to be able to cut itself off from the ICANN DNS roots, not because there's any actual threat of western european nation-states or ISPs cutting off its transport links to places like the DE-CIX, but because the Russian government wants the ability to cut things off in an emergency situation. Theoretically, an "emergency" that might be somet…

US has waged several wars recently and Russia is in top 3 list of USA enemies - right after ISIS and ebola as far as I remember. It makes Russian government to worry about things...

The US has gone to war with poor desert nomads. Its totally ridiculous to think the #1 nuclear power would fathom... what, a land invasion? of the #2 nuclear power.

Russia and the US have been antagonistic of one another ever since the Bolsheviks deposed the US backed monarchy. That doesn't mean either are delusional enough to end the human race in total nuclear annihilation trying to go to war with one another. That's completely obscene fearmongering.

Re: Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

#73

Post by ktjfi »

PeterZhizhin wrote: post #35
ethelward wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know where you live, but is it not the same (i.e. you need official approbation to plan a protest) in most countries?

Yes. Except that in Russia this works a little bit different. You need a permission (not approbation) from the authorities for any political gatherings. Otherwise, everyone gathering risks spending 15 days in jail (or $500 fines, median monthly salary after tax $300) for gathering illegally. Usually they forbid them, so that was an exception.

So like in any other country? Except for the forbidding, of course.

Re: Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

#74

Post by mobilemidget »

PeterZhizhin wrote: post #39
comboy wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what exactly are they doing? Just cutting off random IPs? The actual IP was blocked or is it only DNS based? How about tor traffic?

Right now, we have a legislation (this one existed since 2012) that requires to ban certain IP addresses. All ISP's are being monitored by the authority called Roscomnadzor and allowing access to a banned IP will lead to fines. Unfortunately, this doesn't really work because people here learned how to use VPN's, proxies and Tor. Moreover, with cloud providers you can easily switch IP addresses. Telegram messenger was…

Extra note, Roscomnadzor also writes non Russian companies hosting content they have issues with and request that non .ru providers take it down to “protect” Russians.

Re: Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

#75

Post by selune »

dmix wrote: post #71
selune wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I might be pessimistic because I am in close contact with that demographic (lots of my friends are young, educated, comparatively well-off guys from Moscow working in tech) and, pardon my French, they decide shit. Oligarchs decide the fate of Russia.

Yet the oligarch’s power plays and Russia’s tough posturing seems popular among the population. Or at least tolerable to the average person. How do you account for that?

Huh? Whoever likes oligarchs in Russia?

If you mean the popularity of Putin then propaganda and general low level of education of populace.

Re: Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

#76

Post by CamperBob2 »

jotm wrote: post #67
chrisco255 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder about when people emigrate their way out of a problem country, doesn't it just leave behind people who are too complacent, too poor or too uneducated to enact real change?

Yeah, welcome to Eastern Europe. Everyone who can, leaves, then they badmouth the country for not changing/advancing enough. Who tf is supposed to do that? The farm workers left behind? Or the politicians who have zero interest beyond their own pockets?

Much the same can be said about America's own heartland. I got out as soon as I could afford enough gas to make it across the physical, ideological, and mental borders.

Somebody else can stay and "advance" things. Life's too short.

Re: Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

#77

Post by selune »

jotm wrote: post #67
chrisco255 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder about when people emigrate their way out of a problem country, doesn't it just leave behind people who are too complacent, too poor or too uneducated to enact real change?

Yeah, welcome to Eastern Europe. Everyone who can, leaves, then they badmouth the country for not changing/advancing enough. Who tf is supposed to do that? The farm workers left behind? Or the politicians who have zero interest beyond their own pockets?

And risk ending up in jail, murdered or dying poor? One may love their country but loves their life/family more.

I don't know where you're from but if you're from postsoviet countries you should know how freaking difficult it is to oppose the system and, in case of Russia, also dangerous.

Re: Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

#78

Post by jamespo »

egao1980 wrote: post #56
comboy wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for a detailed explanation. That seems pretty radical. I mean, because of technology progress (mainly crypto improvements, but also cheaper hardware development) I only see two outcomes in the future: (it's a global issue, not just related to Russia) 1. We have a complete freedom of information exchange. It's a powerful thing. It's not only free speech, but also easily available all illegal digital content and…

Nope, it's not radical. DNS system is controlled by US company and if you rely on it your country's infrastructure is vulnerable. So if US decides to cut Russia from DNS national services including government sites should continue to function. People panic without understanding the reasons behind this law.

Doesn't Russia operate the authoritative servers for .ru ?

Re: Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

#79

Post by shmerl »

dang wrote: post #70
shmerl wrote: post #37

That's really just a symptom, while the disease is the dictatorship which can do whatever it wants disregarding the people.

Please don't take HN threads further into political or nationalistic flamewar.

What's flameable here? It's all factual and not the matter of dispute. And the point is that fixing symptoms won't help until the root of the problem is fixed. And I'm not saying protesters are wrong or anything. It's just that the problem is a lot deeper.

Re: Thousands of Russians protest against internet restrictions

#80

Post by [deleted] »

chrisco255 wrote: post #55
PeterZhizhin wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that the Internet as a decentralised system doesn't require any regulation. This a self-regulatory system. On the second question though... I don't see any future for me in Russia. Thankfully, it will be relatively easy for me to emigrate.

I wonder about when people emigrate their way out of a problem country, doesn't it just leave behind people who are too complacent, too poor or too uneducated to enact real change?

[deleted]
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