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Kremlin Seeks to Control Online Media

Posted by Zonk on from the oh-i'm-sure-there-will-be-no-jokes-with-this-one dept.

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."

7 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Thats what happens when you let mafia run by Patrick+Mannion · · Score: 5, Insightful

    More like when your president is a former head of KGB.

    --
    In America, you spam computers In Soviet Russia, computers spam you!
  2. Russian internet brigades by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Maybe the Russian administration can't control the online media, but that sure doesn't stop them from trying.

    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_fo r_deletion/Internet_brigades_(2nd_nomination)

  3. Re:In Soviet Russia... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    In So Viet Russia, Ho Chi Mins You!

  4. Joking aside... by TheGreatHegemon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Joking aside... by Patrick+Mannion · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, and that's not obvious enough, what with the constant murder of sources and journalists in Russia? Have you been living under a rock for two years!?

      --
      In America, you spam computers In Soviet Russia, computers spam you!
  5. Re:Like always in Russia by Shihar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Soviet style" is when you round up a few million people without trial and make them slaves in work camps in some place very cold and do this such that the vast majority of them die before there 'term' (if they even got one) is up.

    Take a fucking breather people. There are a lot of things to bitch about when it comes to the US and its direction. That said, the extreme hyperbole where you compare the Soviet Union justice system to the US makes you sound like an idiot not worth listening to.

    I am not happy with the direction that the US is headed in many regards, but people need to screw their heads back on and get some perspective. The US is not Soviet Russia. Hell, it isn't even close to the Russian Federation or China. The US is still very much a liberal place to live, and in many regards far more liberal in some areas then Europe. The US has a long way to fall before it reaches the level of Russian Federation (much less the Soviet Union).

  6. Re:Like always in Russia by bendodge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In fact, Kruschev changed directions so radically that he built the Berlin Wall and had would-be crossers shot!

    --
    The government can't save you.