Slashdot Mirror
Kremlin Seeks to Control Online Media
reporter writes "According to a disturbing report just published by Bloomberg, 'As the Kremlin gears up for the election of Putin's successor next March, Soviet-style controls are being extended to online news after a presidential decree last month set up a new agency to supervise both mass media and the Web.' However, unless the Kremlin pursues Chinese-style/Turkish-style blocking of the Internet-Protocol addresses of web sites like 'The Economist', even the Kremlin cannot control the online media. If Putin pulled the plug on an anti-Putin web site inside Russia, the anti-Putin web site could simply be migrated offshore to a server in, say, the United States."
Oh never mind!
In America, you spam computers In Soviet Russia, computers spam you!
it takes a dictator to get anything done. Peter the Great, Stalin, and now Putin are part of a Russian tradition of autocracy.
Inventions have long since reached their limit, and I see no hope for further development.-- Frontinus, 1st cent. AD
You think that's bad, wait until the US gets full control over the DNS root.
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
the Russians are doing something Bush can get behind and support.
a country.
sooner or later mobsters will show their true face and "weed out" competition.
pity on any fools who think russia is a western, modern nation.
Read radical news here
Maybe the Russian administration can't control the online media, but that sure doesn't stop them from trying.
o r_deletion/Internet_brigades_(2nd_nomination)
I suspect their government-sponsored trolls are also active on Wikipedia, where, besides pushing Russian propaganda, they try to suppress any mention of this phenomenon. Recently, an article on this subject (titled "Internet trolls squads") was voted into deletion, and now the resurrected article (titled "Internet brigades") has again been nominated for deletion by a number of persistent Russian editors.
Read more about the phenomenon here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_brigades
See the discussion on deleting that article here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_f
Bush declared that Putin has a good soul, so there's obviously nothing to be worried about.
If Putin just put his black belt in judo to good use and kick the crap out of his opponents.
In America, you spam computers In Soviet Russia, computers spam you!
"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue... I was able to get a sense of his soul... He's a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country and I appreciate very much the frank dialogue and that's the beginning of a very constructive relationship," Mr Bush said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1392791.stm
"If Putin pulled the plug on an anti-Putin web site inside Russia, the anti-Putin web site could simply be migrated offshore to a server in, say, the United States." ...and then what? Putting it outside Russia means that blocking it's IP is probably easier to do, not harder. Then again, if I was doing it I'd let it run... and see who drops in.
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
This is worrying. I personally feel Russia has been taking steps back as far as civil liberty goes, really I feel that the whole WORLD has been taking steps back.
The internet is being reigned in now - this was possibly the last great refuge for free speech...
Rather worrying.
Will all political websites eventually have to be hosted in another country? Maybe mutual swaps? US and neo-USSR, France and Britain, China and India.
I was just in Turkey and was able to visit every website I wanted which included newsites that were critical of AKP and other political parties and leaders in Turkey. Also, more importantly, porn sites can be reached without any problems.
If you insult the founder of Turkey -- whose dead and thus not running for election -- then you get into trouble. Usually insulting the current PM - Erdogan - may get you sued by Erdogan but not likely your website is going to be blocked.
China and Turkey are quite different in their levels of censorship. Critical political commentary is very common in the media in Turkey. This is an election year in Turkey too and I don't think you'll see any censorship of political opinion.
And then they'll end up in a very unfortunate accident like that former KGB officer in Britain and his buddy in Maryland... Putin has such a way of dealing with his critics...
I wonder how long it will be before the revolts.... Turkey, China, Russia and the US to some extent, I wonder how long it will take till we can say:
In Soviet Russia, Internet censors you
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
We're in the 21st century. We've got the Internet, everybody (ok, most) is aware of blogs and the relocatability of information sources.
So when will institutions learn that times have changed?
Always there to give freedom!
Engineering is the art of compromise.
Well, the major difference is that in the U.S., and in many other countries, the "mafia" have achieved enough power to effectively legitimatize their business models, and in some cases even protect them from competition, with the weight of law.
Why work against the government, when for a few million bucks, you can make it work for you?
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
In post-Soviet Russia, government STILL controls you!
"It is a denial of justice not to stretch out a helping hand to the fallen; that is the common right of humanity."
"If Putin pulled the plug on an anti-Putin web site inside Russia, the anti-Putin web site could simply be migrated offshore to a server in, say, the United States."
Fair trade. the US gets the anti-Putin sites, and Russia gets the Torrent servers after the RIAA pulls the plug in the US.
Meanwhile, Canada gets the former US internet radio streams.
'The more you tighten your grip, the more systems will slip through your fingers'
You shall know him by his Sig
Would you have rather had Bush tell the truth (Putin, you're a psychopathic douche bag!) and pissed him off? I, for one, would rather Bush tell him a flattering lie than further strain relations with Russia.
In Post-Soviet Russia, the government reports on the media.
Sorry, everyone. I don't have a proper meme joke for this one.
American Journalism and Russia's Tragedy
_ cohen
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20001002/cohen
The Media's New Cold War
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050131/cohen
More on the true agenda hidden behind the "spread of democracy" propaganda carried out by our own influential media...
http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/stephen_f
to give your post a proper subject and instead treat it as the beginning of your comment.
(sorry, peeve of mine)
In Russia Soviet, Dyslexia for cure found.
This could be rather ironic. There are, um, certain things I've googled for in the past where the most effective results were obtained with site:*.ru. Looks like we might be returning the favor to the Russians soon.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
... " If Putin pulled the plug on an anti-Putin web site inside Russia, the anti-Putin web site could simply be migrated offshore to a server in, say, the United States." ...
Then it becomes enemy, imperialist propaganda and immediately discarded as such. To have legitimacy sites must be located within the country.
2c
- http://www.lenta.ru/info/license.htm
- http://www.rbc.ru/
- http://www.mail.ru/
- http://www.gazeta.ru/
...
Same goes for the most popular blog services:- http://www.livejournal.com/ which has Russian-speaking abuse team controlled by a Russian company
- http://www.liveinternet.ru/
- ...
None of these businesses is going to risk their investments. The irony is that it is exactly the same in the U.S. as well - big companies just support one of the two candidates and nobody cares about the smaller ones. So Bloomberg and the rest, stop scaring your people while attempting to control them. And you,Now, if a sizeable chunk of the Russian electorate had Internet connectivity and could read English, that would be a problem. Why is everybody assuming every Russian can read English? How many of us can read Russian?
The main point being, in a "nominal" democracy you need to control only 50%+1 of the electorate. Information channels that are available to only a tiny fraction of the population are irrelevant to censorship. In Italy (not as badly censored as Russia... yet) you can find bunches of books denouncing Berlusconi's mafia acquaintances, corruption, and the suspicious sources of his wealth in his own bookstores: that's because few Italians read books (or newspapers for that sake). Try say anything even alluding in that direction on television, and you get fired so fast your ass leaves skid marks through the parking lot. It has not even gotten much better now that Berlusconi is in opposition because he still retains his private power.
Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
So when will institutions learn that times have changed?
The lesson is that there is no longer one Internet. There are multiple internets, filtered to suit the needs of national leaders. They've proven that they can control their own tidy filtered internets. Don't believe me? Just ask Yahoo! about what the French government can do. The irony with the Yahoo! case is that the suit was originally brought not by The Government in France, but by a well-meaning French anti-Nazi group.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
notice all of the subject change comments in this thread to criticism of the usa/ bush. right over the head of anyone who makes such a comment or mods such a comment up is that... drum roll please... THEY CAN MAKE THAT COMMENT IN THE USA WITH NO REPERCUSSIONS
the issue here is that criticism of putin/ the russian government within russia is being censored. everyone get that? has the meaning of that observation sunk into your head yet? really?
now go ahead and bash the usa, criticize bush all you want, and mod such comments up... in this thread... about russian censorship
!?
you're absolutely free to do so. get it yet?
fashionable anti-americanism is no replacement for a functional brain. if in the context of commenting on russian censorship you still think it is somehow useful to bash the usa, all you are doing is making yourself look like a fool. you are just demonstrating your own lack of an elementary school level skillset at compare and contrast. it's amazing how prejudice blinds
now don't get me wrong, the usa does plenty of wrong in this world (and plenty right... how's that thunderbolt of moderation strike you?), but to criticize a country with much better freedoms than russia (i said much better, not perfect, do you understand that difference?), in a thread about russian censorship, is just pure idiocy on the part of anyone who does so. all you do is make yourself look like a moron
really, you're a moron if you think bashing the usa in this thread is useful, insightful, interesting, whatever. 100% unadulterated low iq cretin = you
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The only good thing that could come out of this is now Yakov Smirnoff will have a fresh supply of material for some fresh new "In Soviet Russia....." jokes.
First, the State took over the Oil industry. Now, they want to take over the media. But they maintain they are a democratic government. I call it "Stealth Communism": Communism that looks like something nice, but smells like something not-so-nice.
"The first time I went to a restaurant, they asked me 'How many in your party?' and I said "Six hundred million." ----- Yakov Smirnoff
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
What about the Cybercrime treaty the US signed? Is Russia a signatory to the treaty? Will the US have to enfrce Russia's laws?
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
they simply kill those who descent too vocally? regardless of whether they are in russia or say... london?
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
The question is what will Russians do? (What will Chinese do? What will Turks do?)
Nothing.
And nobody will give a damn about this situation until economical situation significantly deteriorates. People rallying here for "rights" do not understand that mere existence of "rights" in Western country is a result of good economic shape not vice versa.
And economy does not have ideological preferences. It can be blooming in fairly autocratic societies like China or Chile (during Pinochet times) or Singapour or it could be really struggling (Eltsyn times were pretty democratic in Russia compared to China or Soviet Union).
People tend to forger that freedom of speech and other political freedoms are secondary to economic freedoms: freedom to eat at least once a day, freedom to have a house in winter, freedom of not to be killed everyday by gangs and people won't give a dman about the first ones until the more basic ones are not in a reasonable shape.
Rise of Nazis in Germany is clear example of that.
So as long as Russian economy is strong, people in Russia will just yak about your so precious YRO, but do zilch.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
If I ran an anti-Putin web site, I would be concerned about any offers to eat out at a Japanese restaurant.
And I'm glad to see that Vlad Fedorov has joined him, so that they can continue their eternal flamewar from Wikipedia onto /.. Locked in eternal struggle, they shall continue until the end of all things.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
"Oh yeah, how many websites on the Armenian genocide can you bring up in Turkey?"
2 3/1530254)
k inik.php)
How about every single one of them? Actually, none of the websites about the genocide are banned. It is not illegal to talk about the genocide, nor to accept it. The crushing majority still denies it, and would hate your guts if you supported the claims, but they can't legally do anything.
No journalist have gone to prison for reporting on Armenian genocide. Hrant Dink got convicted of "insulting turkishness" because of a misinterpretation of a article he wrote in newspaper. His sentence was "postponed", which really meant that he wouldn't really serve it if he didn't get convicted of the same charges. (Since it was a misinterpretation, it was unlikely)
Coincidentally, he was talking about how the Armenians should leave aside the bad blood between Turks and them. (The mistranslation was kind of like "Armenians should get rid of the bad blood of Turks in their veins.)
It wasn't the state who prosecuted Hrant Dink, it was a private lawyer called Kemal Kerincsiz, a fascist jackass who only pressed charges to draw attention to himself. He also pressed charges against other prominent public figures who supported the Genocide. Nevertheless, all these charges were dismissed by the courts, since article 301 is very vague and doesn't really say anything about genocide. This in turn put Hrant in the crosshairs of an über-nationalistic minority, and he got murdered.
While everybody knows that he got murdered, no one here really mentions that more than 50.000 people marched in his funeral, shouting out "We're all Hrant, we're all armenians!". That's the single most number of people attending a civilian funeral in Turkey. (barring aside the ex presidents and such.) (link : http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/
Denying the genocide doesn't make it go away, but making it illegal to say that it didn't happen doesn't necesserally make it right neither, as in France. (link : http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/19/opinion/ed
Freedom of speech means you have to be willing to hear both sides, right or wrong.
...just as with the hysteria over Iraq and Iran.
that we keep hearing about in the west? a woman recently i believe, and the editor of forbes in moscow
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
you dont block IPs.. you just put people who excert their free speech in jail
Thanks. I'm glad to hear that there are rationally thinking people who are able to distinguish between unbiased and biased information...
What was the price of free speech again? $75/barrel? $85? $95? The magic double-oh?
Hey, what are the chances of some oil trading systems having an oil-price "millennium bug"? When I started in the industry I wouldn't have considered a 10-fold price increase realistic. But I've seen 8-fold already, and with prices on a steady rise (BBC commodity prices) it could be back into record-breaking territory by mid-May. $100/barrel by New Year? Party time!
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"