Starting March 1, the Russian government will be able to block internet connections around the world without the legal holdovers that have prevented it in other eras. The executive authorities promulgated regulatory resolution 1667, giving the communications watchdog Roskomnadzor full powers to control all traffic on Russian networks and entrusting absolute mercy to telecom operators. There are no courts behind this organization, except for officials of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the former KGB, and the law never mentions the protection of people’s fundamental rights.
The Internet was born and grew around the world on the premise that it would be a decentralized, global network that would support government control. The new norm would subject the Kremlin to “centralized control” of all traffic passing through its territory by the omnipresent Russian state.
This document will allow Roskomnadzor, as it is known on the Russian side of the Internet, to deal with any “threats” that arise on Lunet. The agency will consult the FSB and the ministry that oversees communications media on its decisions and will have free access to issue orders to carriers. Regulate internet traffic.
Resolution 1667 modifies the legality of the censorship currently applied by the Kremlin on the Internet and opens the door to a complete shutdown of the network. Since Moscow launched all-out war against Ukraine, the Russian government has blocked thousands of web pages, including dozens of periodicals, including EL PAÍS. YouTube has slowed down and I can no longer watch videos. I blocked calls from messaging services like WhatsApp. Ordered all Telegram channel creators to install software government This allows you to collect information from your subscribers.
The move coincides with a new crackdown on freedom of information in the country. The government forced telecommunications companies to block it roaming SMS messages received from abroad. Indeed, the Russian government has also been experimenting with temporary internet shutdowns in some regions in recent months, under the pretext of dealing with suspected drone attacks and sabotage.
While Roskomnadzor is currently dealing with legal overrides to modify internet traffic, operating companies are going in the opposite direction of using VPN networks to eliminate censorship, and alternative services are being invented that allow customers to access YouTube and block calls. From now on, Roskomnadzor will have complete control, and single carriers will be able to intervene in questions before the FSB-controlled state commission.
The new regulation defines the threat of persecution as “access (of a citizen) to resources restricted by Russian law.” In August, the Kremlin approved another law making it a crime to view any information related to Putinism on the internet. He declared himself an extremist. The list includes everything from LGTB content to government agencies such as Greenpeace to opposition figures such as the late Alexei Navalny.
Last week today, I began the first court case under this law. Russian police have charged a 20-year-old man from the Sverdlovsk region with targeting news about the Russian Volunteer Forces and the Azov Battalion, two military organizations labeled as extremist by the Kremlin and active in the Ukrainian Band. His lawyer claimed that the young man casually accessed this information and reported that the operator had warned him about the security forces.
State control of the Internet is of concern not only to the most supersectoral sectors, but also to the local Russian Democratic Opposition. “All these measures make things easier for the authorities in a climate of complete suppression of all dissent,” wrote a Telegram critic of ultranationalist military supporter Igor Gilkin, who is currently in jail for criticizing the Kremlin.
“This is one of the most interesting transformations of our time, in that this supervisory body has assumed the role of hegemony over the last vestiges of freedom of information before our eyes,” he added.
“It’s like in a movie demolition man” accused another Telegram channel associated with the Russian Air Force, fighter bomber. “Damn it!,” he regrets, “how much I pity our descendants who do not live in that free and safe, sometimes criminal, frank, open and limitless Internet. You could decide anything in any country (…) and you wouldn’t be sent to prison, but the only censorship was education and conscience.”
Even the Kremlin’s voting center, VTSIOM, has warned that an “information riot” will erupt in the country due to generational divisions among Russians in the face of digital censorship. A recent survey found that 22% support using tools to overcome obstacles, and this number rises to around 40% for generations born after the 1990s.
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