Authorities consider the Internet a theater of operations. Hard censorship and suppression of dissent
“State Internet censorship is a serious form of organized and systematic violence against citizens, undermining trust and provoking confusion and xenophobia . ” Declaration of Hacktivism
Note. The monitoring includes information on restrictions on Internet freedom in the Crimea, since the territory of the peninsula is actually controlled by the Russian authorities.
The international human rights group Agora today published the report “ Freedom of the Internet 2016: on martial law ”, which is devoted to the review of restrictions on the freedom of the Internet in Russia. The data was obtained as a result of continuous monitoring of the situation throughout 2016.
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According to human rights activists, last year there was a tightening of censorship and a reduction in freedom. Experts from the non-governmental organization Freedom House came to the same conclusions. For the fourth year in a row, the level of freedom on the Russian Internet has been falling, and now it has fallen even lower than Belarus, Sudan and Libya. This is absolutely the worst state since the fall of the USSR.
So much so that at the global level, the authorities are considering the possibility of self-isolation of the Runet. At the suggestion of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Communications, by 2020, 99% of Internet traffic in Russia should be transmitted over networks within the country .
Experts list several landmark events that show a depressing situation in the Russian Federation:
Referring to objective statistics, in 2016, 116,103 separate facts of restriction of Internet freedom in Russia were recorded. The absolute majority of them (111 498) are related to filtering and blocking content, as well as prohibiting this or that information (for example, see the prohibition of the Tyumen court to distribute instructions for making explosives from Minecraft or entering 127.0.0.1 into the registry of prohibited resources ) .
In addition to simple censorship, other types of restrictions on freedoms and human rights, including the use of violence, proposals for regulation, criminal prosecutions, administrative pressure, etc., are also fraudulent. (see table). We should especially note the sharp increase in cases of administrative pressure on users, bloggers, journalists, and owners of Internet resources.
The authors of the report resemble common truths that all citizens should remember:
* unhindered access to the Internet free of censorship is a fundamental human right;
* It is the responsibility of the state to guarantee everyone the opportunity to freely distribute and receive any information and ideas through the Network.
According to the Constitution of Russia and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, freedom can be restricted provided that such restriction complies with the “triple test” - provided for by a clearly formulated law, pursues a legitimate aim and is necessary in a democratic society. But even under such conditions, there can be no justification for threats and violent actions against Internet users, bloggers and owners of Internet resources. But in 2016, the level of violence against online activists and journalists has increased significantly. At least 49 bloggers or network journalists were threatened or attacked in connection with online activities.
“Demonstrative impunity, and in fact tacit encouragement by the federal authorities, is undoubtedly one of the factors that led to a surge in violence against bloggers and journalists in the regions,” say human rights activists. “It is characteristic that in the past year, when the attackers were installed, they were increasingly found not only by police officers, but also by security personnel of state enterprises, members of paramilitary associations, as well as openly acting members of“ pro-Kremlin ”movements.”
The three most high-profile criminal cases against Internet users, which ended with sentences to real deprivation of liberty - cases of blogger Alexei Kungurov (2 years of imprisonment for a post on LJ), kindergarten teacher Yevgenia Chudnovets (6 months of imprisonment for a repost of a 3-second video with image of a naked child in a closed group “VKontakte”) and electrical engineer Andrey Bubeyev (2 years in prison for publishing a picture of a tube of toothpaste and the words “Expel Russia from yourself”, as well as repost of Boris Stomakhin’s article “Crimea is Ukraine”). All three sentences were pronounced for publications and statements expressing opinions on socially significant issues: the Syrian campaign, the Crimean campaign and the campaign to protect children.
Experts note the rapid increase in the total number of sentences in extremist cases, among which "a growing proportion of those pronounced for the statements that are contrary to the letter of the law, but do not pose a significant public danger, are more and more noticeable."
The total duration of the punishment imposed on 29 criminal cases against Internet users in Russia was 59 years. After the publication of careless statements, users are attracted either because of “extremist statements” or for “justifying or calling for terrorism”.
If the country has martial law, then you need to carefully monitor the words. Here, even without government intervention, you can get rid of the full program: according to the Digital Civility Index statistics , about 75% of Russians were insulted or harassed on the Internet. In terms of communication culture, Russia has entered the group of the most backward countries.
Very eloquent statistics on Internet regulatory initiatives. Human rights activists say that after a relative decline in the activity of lawmakers and officials in 2015, there was a twofold increase in the number of various Internet regulation proposals in the past year - 97. The vast majority of draft laws and proposals included the introduction of new restrictions on the dissemination of information, user responsibility and easier monitoring of citizens.
The only attempt to resolve something on the Web was a bill on licensing the retail sale of alcohol online, but it was soon withdrawn from consideration.
The authors of the report note that the entire Russian policy on the Internet over the past five years has been characterized by the words “attack”, “campaign”, “enemies”, becoming in fact a military campaign against a free Runet. “In such conditions, the Internet began to be perceived by the Russian authorities as a theater of military operations both inside and outside,” this explains both the tightening of repression against users and the new restrictions on freedom. Everything is logical: "Inside the country, residents gradually found themselves in the rear of a warring state in cyberspace, in which the martial law actually operates with strong censorship and a harsh reaction to any disagreement when the most innocent criticism of the authorities or an attempt to challenge the actions of the leadership is considered an armed attack . "
Note. The monitoring includes information on restrictions on Internet freedom in the Crimea, since the territory of the peninsula is actually controlled by the Russian authorities.
The international human rights group Agora today published the report “ Freedom of the Internet 2016: on martial law ”, which is devoted to the review of restrictions on the freedom of the Internet in Russia. The data was obtained as a result of continuous monitoring of the situation throughout 2016.
')
According to human rights activists, last year there was a tightening of censorship and a reduction in freedom. Experts from the non-governmental organization Freedom House came to the same conclusions. For the fourth year in a row, the level of freedom on the Russian Internet has been falling, and now it has fallen even lower than Belarus, Sudan and Libya. This is absolutely the worst state since the fall of the USSR.
So much so that at the global level, the authorities are considering the possibility of self-isolation of the Runet. At the suggestion of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Communications, by 2020, 99% of Internet traffic in Russia should be transmitted over networks within the country .
Experts list several landmark events that show a depressing situation in the Russian Federation:
- In April, an attempt was made by intercepting authorization SMS to gain access to Telegram accounts of civic activist Oleg Kozlovsky and employee of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Georgy Alburov (alburov habrayuzer ). Earlier, in February, the Telegram of several activists of the Other Russia tried to crack the same way. In all cases, the victims of hacking used the services of the operator MTS.
- In October, several dozen civil activists and journalists were warned by Google that some government-related hackers were trying to gain access to their accounts. After analyzing the situation, several independent organizations came to the conclusion that the same hacker group Fancy Bear was involved in phishing attacks against Russian citizens, which was behind the attack on the servers of US political and governmental institutions, and indirectly , these hackers work for the Russian government .
- Squeezing foreign founders out of Russian media - according to Roskomnadzor , 821 media outlets were forced to exclude foreign founders from the list.
Referring to objective statistics, in 2016, 116,103 separate facts of restriction of Internet freedom in Russia were recorded. The absolute majority of them (111 498) are related to filtering and blocking content, as well as prohibiting this or that information (for example, see the prohibition of the Tyumen court to distribute instructions for making explosives from Minecraft or entering 127.0.0.1 into the registry of prohibited resources ) .
In addition to simple censorship, other types of restrictions on freedoms and human rights, including the use of violence, proposals for regulation, criminal prosecutions, administrative pressure, etc., are also fraudulent. (see table). We should especially note the sharp increase in cases of administrative pressure on users, bloggers, journalists, and owners of Internet resources.
The authors of the report resemble common truths that all citizens should remember:
* unhindered access to the Internet free of censorship is a fundamental human right;
* It is the responsibility of the state to guarantee everyone the opportunity to freely distribute and receive any information and ideas through the Network.
According to the Constitution of Russia and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, freedom can be restricted provided that such restriction complies with the “triple test” - provided for by a clearly formulated law, pursues a legitimate aim and is necessary in a democratic society. But even under such conditions, there can be no justification for threats and violent actions against Internet users, bloggers and owners of Internet resources. But in 2016, the level of violence against online activists and journalists has increased significantly. At least 49 bloggers or network journalists were threatened or attacked in connection with online activities.
“Demonstrative impunity, and in fact tacit encouragement by the federal authorities, is undoubtedly one of the factors that led to a surge in violence against bloggers and journalists in the regions,” say human rights activists. “It is characteristic that in the past year, when the attackers were installed, they were increasingly found not only by police officers, but also by security personnel of state enterprises, members of paramilitary associations, as well as openly acting members of“ pro-Kremlin ”movements.”
The three most high-profile criminal cases against Internet users, which ended with sentences to real deprivation of liberty - cases of blogger Alexei Kungurov (2 years of imprisonment for a post on LJ), kindergarten teacher Yevgenia Chudnovets (6 months of imprisonment for a repost of a 3-second video with image of a naked child in a closed group “VKontakte”) and electrical engineer Andrey Bubeyev (2 years in prison for publishing a picture of a tube of toothpaste and the words “Expel Russia from yourself”, as well as repost of Boris Stomakhin’s article “Crimea is Ukraine”). All three sentences were pronounced for publications and statements expressing opinions on socially significant issues: the Syrian campaign, the Crimean campaign and the campaign to protect children.
Experts note the rapid increase in the total number of sentences in extremist cases, among which "a growing proportion of those pronounced for the statements that are contrary to the letter of the law, but do not pose a significant public danger, are more and more noticeable."
The total duration of the punishment imposed on 29 criminal cases against Internet users in Russia was 59 years. After the publication of careless statements, users are attracted either because of “extremist statements” or for “justifying or calling for terrorism”.
If the country has martial law, then you need to carefully monitor the words. Here, even without government intervention, you can get rid of the full program: according to the Digital Civility Index statistics , about 75% of Russians were insulted or harassed on the Internet. In terms of communication culture, Russia has entered the group of the most backward countries.
Internet regulation
Very eloquent statistics on Internet regulatory initiatives. Human rights activists say that after a relative decline in the activity of lawmakers and officials in 2015, there was a twofold increase in the number of various Internet regulation proposals in the past year - 97. The vast majority of draft laws and proposals included the introduction of new restrictions on the dissemination of information, user responsibility and easier monitoring of citizens.
The only attempt to resolve something on the Web was a bill on licensing the retail sale of alcohol online, but it was soon withdrawn from consideration.
On July 6, amendments to a number of legislative acts came into force, which received the general informal name “Spring Package”. Under the pretext of combating terrorism, Russian telecom operators, as well as Internet services, have obliged, starting from July 1, 2018, to keep all user correspondence, including text and other messages, for 6 months, and metadata - for 3 years. In addition, all Internet services using encryption are required to transmit to the Federal Security Service the information necessary to decrypt messages. The law was passed, despite the unprecedented protests of citizens and representatives of Internet businesses, who claimed a serious violation of the Constitution and the enormous costs that would be forced to incur services, shifting them ultimately to users. Given the widespread use by the Russian authorities of methods and technologies of spying on political and civic activists (see the report “ Russia under observation ”), even partial implementation of the provisions of the “Spring Package” will cause a serious blow to civil society, giving the secret services even more opportunities for politically motivated prosecution.
Developing the provisions and ideas of the "Spring Package", the State Duma offered to introduce fines for services that refuse to provide the FSB with keys to decrypt user data. In addition, the discussion of creating a national SSL certificate and compulsory
its introduction into all popular browsers and operating systems.
Bills on fines for telecom operators for non-compliance with information blocking requirements, fines for users for downloading “illegal” content, criminal liability for insulting the feelings of veterans of the Great Patriotic War, prohibiting advertising on blocked sites, prohibiting foreign persons from owning are at different stages of discussion and adoption. Internet traffic exchange points, mandatory identification of instant messengers users, prohibition of election campaigning in online cinemas and mandatory Registration of taxi aggregators in the Russian domain zone. There are proposals for the nationalization of big data ( Kaspersky proposal ) and a direct ban on the publication of instructions for circumventing locks.
On December 5, 2016, the president approved a new Information Security Doctrine, according to which the Russian authorities consider the possibility of cross-border information exchange, the use of the Internet by foreign intelligence services to exert “informational and psychological” effects aimed at destabilizing the domestic political and social situation, as well as an increase in foreign media. the number of materials containing a biased assessment of the state policy of the Russian Federation. “Apparently, it is precisely this view that will determine the main approaches to regulating the Internet in the coming years,” conclude human rights activists.
The authors of the report note that the entire Russian policy on the Internet over the past five years has been characterized by the words “attack”, “campaign”, “enemies”, becoming in fact a military campaign against a free Runet. “In such conditions, the Internet began to be perceived by the Russian authorities as a theater of military operations both inside and outside,” this explains both the tightening of repression against users and the new restrictions on freedom. Everything is logical: "Inside the country, residents gradually found themselves in the rear of a warring state in cyberspace, in which the martial law actually operates with strong censorship and a harsh reaction to any disagreement when the most innocent criticism of the authorities or an attempt to challenge the actions of the leadership is considered an armed attack . "
Text of the report
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/356112/
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