Slashdot Mirror
Russia Orders Major VPN Providers To Block 'Banned' Sites (torrentfreak.com)
Russian authorities have ordered ten major VPN providers to begin blocking sites on the country's blacklist. "NordVPN, ExpressVPN, IPVanish and HideMyAss are among those affected," reports TorrentFreak. "TorGuard also received a notification and has pulled its services out of Russia with immediate effect." From the report: During the past few days, telecoms watch Roscomnadzor says it sent compliance notifications to 10 major VPN services with servers inside Russia -- NordVPN, ExpressVPN, TorGuard, IPVanish, VPN Unlimited, VyprVPN, Kaspersky Secure Connection, HideMyAss!, Hola VPN, and OpenVPN. The government agency is demanding that the affected services begin interfacing with the FGIS database, blocking the sites listed within. Several other local companies -- search giant Yandex, Sputnik, Mail.ru, and Rambler -- are already connected to the database and filtering as required.
"In accordance with paragraph 5 of Article 15.8 of the Federal Law No. 149-FZ of 27.07.2006 'On Information, Information Technology and on Protection of Information' hereby we are informing you about the necessity to get connected to the Federal state informational system of the blocked information sources and networks [FGIS] within thirty working days from the receipt [of this notice]," the notice reads. A notice received by TorGuard reveals that the provider was indeed given just under a month to comply. The notice also details the consequences for not doing so, i.e being placed on the blacklist with the rest of the banned sites so it cannot operate in Russia. The demand from Roscomnadzor sent to TorGuard and the other companies also requires that they hand over information to the authorities, including details of their operators and places of business. The notice itself states that for foreign entities, Russian authorities require the full entity name, country of residence, tax number and/or trade register number, postal and email address details, plus other information.
"In accordance with paragraph 5 of Article 15.8 of the Federal Law No. 149-FZ of 27.07.2006 'On Information, Information Technology and on Protection of Information' hereby we are informing you about the necessity to get connected to the Federal state informational system of the blocked information sources and networks [FGIS] within thirty working days from the receipt [of this notice]," the notice reads. A notice received by TorGuard reveals that the provider was indeed given just under a month to comply. The notice also details the consequences for not doing so, i.e being placed on the blacklist with the rest of the banned sites so it cannot operate in Russia. The demand from Roscomnadzor sent to TorGuard and the other companies also requires that they hand over information to the authorities, including details of their operators and places of business. The notice itself states that for foreign entities, Russian authorities require the full entity name, country of residence, tax number and/or trade register number, postal and email address details, plus other information.
that is a gaping hole imo
Their answer will be "lol no".
You need a score card to keep up with thier laws these days. I thought VPNs were outlawed in Russia and you had to use the state sponsored one
Meanwhile, NZ has already had a blacklist of sites blocked for a while.
...can just include a line in their source code with a comment "remove the following line to bypass Russian bullshit".
OpenVPN is an OSS package though by the context I assume there is a physical provider with the name somewhere.
Either way this is an example of why balance is required.
A truly ethical state could keep us safe from all the bad things, trolls, misinformation/etc, but that kind of power is more likely to be abused, sooner or later. In Russia's case, well its easier to be evil if you control the information.
What is required instead is a government that establishes rules, but always makes sure the benefits don't exceed the risks.
A rule that states social media platforms must control news stories providing largely false and misleading information such that the person seeing it is clearly informed why it is false and/or misleading is reasonable. There is no censorship there. The false story can be downvoted, but still there, and if a person sees it they can determine why it was given that rating. That much is reasonable.
The internet has less value if the signal to noise ratio gets too low...
Implementing a filter list, on the other hand, is generally not. Site wise, about the best I'd consider is perhaps making sites which provide largely false, misleading or other such objectionable information something you have to click through a warning to get to, but still not filter, unless you request your ISP to do so. Again the presumption is against such things.
Of course, in the US you should almost get a warning when you try to click on a story by someone like Hannity, but sadly the republican's heads would explode if you suggested such evil censorship of their guy. Still, it be interesting if you saw, on any link something like, "An independent audit of this content has shown that 70% of it is false or misleading, or lacks relevant context."
Russian is a shithole country and Putin is a banana warlord. Unlike Soviet leaders, that sent cosmonauts into space, all Putin and his oligarchs are doing are stealing and selling off natural resources.
Vladimir Putin is a gay sissy boi faggot who loves being down on his knees at least once a week sucking the cum out of his Big Black Cock boyfriend.
I have seen this happen because I live in Moscow and have been to one of Putin's gay sex parties.
Fuck that slut Putin he stole that cock from me, fuck him.
Does a list of VPNs that support OTIP IPv6 exist?
This here is the correct response to any country enacting laws that put up barricades on the internet. Simply remove services from that country, let it become an echo chamber island of its own. Glad I gave TorGuard my business and will continue to be a customer into the future.
Just great! They blocked my VPN provider. Now how am I going to, um, hmmm, ... ah, never mind.
On a serious note I hope that something happens that the people of Russia can start getting their freedoms back.
NZ and the UK will demand all VPN service take on their growing gov site ban too?
To ban a VPN?
To find out who in a UK, NZ is paying by CC for a VPN service that is not gov approved?
The nations with growing "pirate domains" to ban?
Tell every VPN that still wants to get CC payments/to bank in that nation to ban "pirate domains"?
Political sites? Video sites? Conservative news sites? Financial websites?
Do faith groups and cults get to ban sites too? Got some DRM sites to ban too?
Once nations see a VPN as just another ISP to regulate its time for a new internet.
A crypto, P2P, onion routing network that's able to escape any gov lists and bans.
Back to some US freedom of speech and US freedom after speech online.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
if they get racist shit off the internet
Maybe you should ask if you can get your email-servers on that blacklist too? :)
because you cant even do it for yourselves...lol
America has always been just a decade behind Europe in its oppression of the people. This is intentional, as it often makes steps towards that oppression seem "not so bad."
"Hey it's not like Europe or Russia" and American sheep just swallow it up.
$stuff control arguments are often laced with "hey you know it's a lot worse for you everywhere else in the world."
$stuff control is never about $stuff. It's about control.
To further build my opinion,
and backfight sensorship, I sooo would like to see this list of blacklisted sites.
Anyone?
IMHO:
Internet is full of content that better be banned!!!
(Especially TOR, VPN services etc.)
All governments need to be able to select & block any/all content, which they find to be harmful, for the common good of general public/state!!!
Just look @ who keeps screaming "PRIVACY!!!" all the time, & you always find ANTI-GOVERNMENT (aka) ANARCHISTS!!!
Real general public is NOT obsessed w/ privacy, unlike they always try to portray/claim!!!
Who really always obsessed w/ privacy (from government)?
Criminals!!!
They would just need to setup a box on AWS then remote desktop into it via their VPN. I do this anytime I'm at work and want to do some off-the-books web browsing but not allowed to connect to any VPN's
This underscores how it is a good thing that we have VPN providers to protect us from nations like this. Shut down in Russia, open in Malaysia, no problem!
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Also, how long before people flock to the other unmentioned VPN services? Then by the time those get blocked there will be another set of new services yet.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.