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Russia restricts opposition election voting app

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Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#31

Post by ookdatnog »

hkai wrote: post #21
tandav wrote: post #10

- Google removes Navalny's team google document with "Smart Vote" instructions. - YouTube blocks videos with Smart Vote instructions. - Telegram blocks a bot with Smart Vote the instructions

If Americans can ban their own opposition from their internet (Parler, Gab, and countless people blocked on mainstream platforms), then it's very hard to argue that the authoritarian Russian government shouldn't ban their opposition from the internet. Perhaps some on-chain solutions will help circumvent the American and Russian restrictions in a few years. Solana sounds like a good candidate for this sort of platform…

Parler isn't banned from the internet, it's banned from AWS and mobile app stores. These bans weren't ordered by the government either.

Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#33

Post by killingtime74 »

hkai wrote: post #21
tandav wrote: post #10

- Google removes Navalny's team google document with "Smart Vote" instructions. - YouTube blocks videos with Smart Vote instructions. - Telegram blocks a bot with Smart Vote the instructions

If Americans can ban their own opposition from their internet (Parler, Gab, and countless people blocked on mainstream platforms), then it's very hard to argue that the authoritarian Russian government shouldn't ban their opposition from the internet. Perhaps some on-chain solutions will help circumvent the American and Russian restrictions in a few years. Solana sounds like a good candidate for this sort of platform…

lol bit rich calling Parler and Gab banned. They can easily buy their own servers and host it themselves. Or are you suggesting the government force AWS/Godaddy/Microsoft to host them?

Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#35

Post by nabla9 »

vadfa wrote: post #30
nabla9 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Difference is that in the US it was not a government. Private enterprise reacted to public pressure. People made them do it. In Russia it is the government.

People? What people? Was there a vote held?

Corporations have better way to gauge the opinion of the silent majority.

Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#36

Post by leppr »

jsn wrote: post #22
leppr wrote: post #17

In this case there's not many reasons for it to be a native app instead of a Progressive Web App. This would simplify distribution. If the app is open source, it could also be hosted on F-droid (or just as an .apk on some website). These kind of situations are exactly why we fight against walled gardens and centralizatiom. It's not a problem until it is.

> In this case there's not many reasons for it to be a native app instead of a Progressive Web App. This would simplify distribution. The opposite of this is true. Blocking a web application is very easy for Russian authorities, there are well-established legal and technical protocols for that, it's a routine, it happens every day. The opposition uses apps precisely because they are more difficult to censor.

I see, that makes sense.

The advantage of a web app is that it can be distributed in any number of ways though. It's trivial to take it and re-host it on different servers, as an onion service, or go the full decentralized route with IPFS or similar.

Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#37

Post by maccard »

jsn wrote: post #22
leppr wrote: post #17

In this case there's not many reasons for it to be a native app instead of a Progressive Web App. This would simplify distribution. If the app is open source, it could also be hosted on F-droid (or just as an .apk on some website). These kind of situations are exactly why we fight against walled gardens and centralizatiom. It's not a problem until it is.

> In this case there's not many reasons for it to be a native app instead of a Progressive Web App. This would simplify distribution. The opposite of this is true. Blocking a web application is very easy for Russian authorities, there are well-established legal and technical protocols for that, it's a routine, it happens every day. The opposition uses apps precisely because they are more difficult to censor.

So is this app using some other protocols that aren't DNS/http(s) that would make it immune to a dns level block? Because a native app that makes http calls is just as easy to block as a pwa

Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#39

Post by paganel »

ookdatnog wrote: post #31
hkai wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Americans can ban their own opposition from their internet (Parler, Gab, and countless people blocked on mainstream platforms), then it's very hard to argue that the authoritarian Russian government shouldn't ban their opposition from the internet. Perhaps some on-chain solutions will help circumvent the American and Russian restrictions in a few years. Solana sounds like a good candidate for this sort of platform…

Parler isn't banned from the internet, it's banned from AWS and mobile app stores. These bans weren't ordered by the government either.

It was similar to self-censure from Amazon, that is if they wanted to still gain lucrative contracts with the military-industrial complex opposed by the candidate that they banned.

To say nothing of the personal vendetta between the owner of Amazon and said candidate, the owner being the wealthyest man on Earth and directly controlling a big mouth-piece of the media (WashPo). The US is by definition an oligarchic state (the previous president was an oligarch, the current one was put in place by the oligarch enemies of the one before him).

Re: Russia restricts opposition election voting app

#40

Post by paganel »

vasco wrote: post #3

> On Friday, sources confirmed on background that at least one of the U.S.-based companies implementing the restriction felt compelled to comply for fear that local staff could face legal action upon receipt of a takedown order from the Russian Federation. Really making the world a better place. How hard would it be to have employees from outside the country make the app review, and shield local employees from this?…

That is the definition of foreign power interference.
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