Tech

VPNs, the Russians’ weapon to escape Kremlin censorship

Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, Russia has taken care to block hundreds of websites in order to control access to information about the war. To counter the digital iron curtain put in place by the Kremlin, more and more Russian citizens have decided to use a VPN to consult free information.

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As you may know, Russia has implemented a digital iron curtain since the start of the conflict in Ukraine. The Kremlin seeks to control any information that circulates in the country, the aim being to prevent Russian citizens from obtaining information that contradicts the government’s discourse on the war.

Moreover, the Russian authorities enacted a law at the beginning of March 2022 which provides up to fifteen years in prison for authors of “false information”, whether for journalists or for any citizen who publishes content on social networks. Fortunately, many Russian citizens have decided to find effective ways to counter this Iron Curtain 2.0.

Our colleagues from the Washington Post tell the story of Konstantin, a 52-year-old Russian entrepreneur. Like many citizens in Russia, Konstantin decided to use a VPN, a virtual private network, to navigate anonymously on the web. And above all, to consult all the sites blocked by Roskomnadzor, the policeman of Russian telecoms.

Russians are massively equipping themselves with VPNs to avoid censorship

Since the start of the war in late February, VPN downloads have skyrocketed in Russia and now number in the hundreds of thousands a day. As Atlas explained in March 2022, VPN subscriptions have increased by 1906%. According to Konstantin, using a VPN in his Moscow apartment brings back memories of the 1980s in the Soviet Union, when he used a shortwave radio to hear Radio Libertya US-funded radio station.

We didn’t know what was going on around us. It’s true again now. Many people in Russia just watch TV and eat whatever the government gives them to eat. I wanted to know what was really going on,” he explains.

Despite the blocking of the most popular VPNs ordered by Russia in September 2021, daily VPN registrations have increased from 15,000 before the war to no less than 475,000 in March. Again this week, downloads continue at a rate of 300,000 per day, according to data compiled by analytics firm Apptopia. At the beginning of April, the Russian telecommunications operator Yota indicated that the number of VPN users was 50 times higher than in January. A month ago, the Kremlin moved to prevent the use of VPNs, banning VPN results on Google. Fortunately, this will not be enough.

Source : washington post

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