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The Real Russia. Today. Telegram, Telegram, Telegram

Source: Meduza

Friday, April 27, 2018

  • Russia’s federal censor accidentally (and briefly) block some of the biggest websites around, and they’ve responded oh yes they have
  • Meduza tracks the dozens of online services disrupted by Russia’s messy Telegram crackdown
  • A lawmaker accused of serial sexual harassment wants in on the Telegram party
  • Libertarians will rally Telegram supporters in Moscow on April 30
  • Ekho Moskvy is fined for sharing a hyperlink to a video where a man swears at Ksenia Sobchak
  • Nikita Belykh’s appeals hearing is postponed after he suddenly feels unwell
  • A university in Yekaterinburg tackles a case of “immoral photoediting”
  • The mayor of Volokolamsk faces off against the district’s supervisor

Story of the week: Russia’s Telegram ban is an exploding cigar 💥

😬 Roskomnadzor accidentally blocks several Internet titans

For about two hours in the early morning on Friday, Russia’s federal censor ordered Internet service providers to block a handful of IP addresses operated by the Internet giants Facebook, Twitter, Yandex, Vkontakte, and Odnoklassniki. Roskomnadzor confirmed the incident, saying it was an accident caused by “the technical features of its system.” The agency insists that the IP addresses weren’t present on its “out-load list” long enough for any ISPs to block these websites. Roskomnadzor simultaneously says “telecoms operators were not instructed to restrict access to these addresses” — a statement easily debunked by the fact that the government’s Internet blacklist very clearly (albeit briefly) listed these IP addresses.

How did Yandex respond? The company confirms that Roskomnadzor briefly blocked five of its IP addresses. In a press release, Yandex stated, “The attempt to block Telegram in Russia has unexpectedly become a blow to the entire RuNet. The block has affected not only the messenger, and many other resources and their users have also suffered. We do not consider this situation to be acceptable. The Russian market can develop only in conditions of open competition.” The company’s public relations director also warned that the state’s efforts against Telegram endanger the Russian market’s competitiveness.
How did Vkontakte respond? Russia’s most popular social network refrained from criticizing Roskomnadzor directly, but managing director Andrey Rogozov told the website TJournal on Friday that Vkontakte will introduce end-to-end encryption on all audio and video calls through its service. Rogozov said that popular online services have recently suffered because of “a misunderstanding of the principles of the modern Internet.” He did not say, however, if Vkontakte plans to add end-to-end encryption to its chat messages.
How did Mail.ru Group (which owns Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki) respond? On Friday, Mail.ru shared three hyperlinks to proxy servers that Telegram users can enter into their “connection type: use proxy” function on the app. In an announcement on Vkontakte, the company didn’t specify that the proxy servers are for Telegram, saying merely, “[This] is for stable access to your favorite services. Use them!” The links direct data to servers in Amsterdam owned by the Mail.ru Network Operations Center. Critics say Mail.ru’s servers might be designed as a kind of Trojan horse, “scanning” for Telegram front-servers, which Roskomnadzor then blocks. Vladislav Zdolnikov, an IT consultant to Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation, told TJournal that Russian Internet users should stick to paid VPN services and avoid Mail.ru’s proxy servers (which could be blocked very easily, if Roskomnadzor considered them a real threat).

Since April 16, Roskomnadzor has blocked nearly 18 million IP addresses in an effort to cut access to Telegram, which refuses to redesign its software to grant Russia’s Federal Security Service access to the app’s encryption keys. All messages sent over WhatsApp are end-to-end encrypted, while only Telegram’s “secret chats” are end-to-end encrypted. Telegram insists that its encryption is an essential feature of its software architecture.

💔 An Internet disrupted

For roughly two weeks, Russia’s federal censor has tried to cut access to the instant messenger Telegram by indiscriminately blocking millions of IP addresses operated by major cloud computing providers, disrupting an array of websites and online services that have nothing to do with Telegram. The outages have been intermittent and unexpected. One day, you can’t buy movie tickets online. The next day, the dentist can’t scan your teeth. Meduza compiled a list of the different services that have become collateral damage in Russia’s war on Telegram.

What services are on this list? Movie tickets, news websites, online comments, ABBYY Lingvo dictionaries, auto insurance policy sales, smart TVs, wearable tech, Delimobil maps, a livestream from the Magnitogorsk City Assembly, the Presidential Grants Foundation, other instant messengers, Wifi connectivity, gaming, airline tickets, e-payments, Adobe services, smart homes, Google Home, bike rentals, dental scans, and more.

😘 State officials are still loving Telegram

State Duma deputy Leonid Slutsky — the same lawmaker accused by multiple women journalists of sexual harassment — has launched his own Telegram channel, saying, “Yes, I know ‘Teleg’ has been banned, but that’s only added to its popularity. So I’m going to follow the trend.” Only announced on April 27, Slutsky’s channel was created on April 16 — the same day Roskomnadzor started blocking the instant messenger.

Slutsky says he will use his channel to talk about the work of the State Duma’s international affairs committee, which he chairs. He also promises “exclusive comments and analysis.”

One of the first public officials to promote Slutsky’s channel was Chechen ruler Ramzan Kadyrov, who welcomed his “brother” to the network. “In Chechnya, by the way, Telegram is working,” Kadyrov wrote on his own Telegram channel, where he has more than 31,250 subscribers. “I’ve had only a few disruptions. We’re some kind of special zone. :) :) :)”

✊ Takin’ it to the streets

Russia’s enraged Internet users are finally getting a venue to demonstrate against the government’s decision to block the instant messenger Telegram. With a permit from City Hall in hand, the Libertarian Party is staging a protest on Monday, April 30, at 2 p.m. on Sakharov Prospekt in Moscow. Organizers are asking demonstrators to bring paper airplanes to the rally — the symbol depicted in Telegram’s official logo.

According to a website run by Russia’s Libertarian Party, the demonstration will call for the immediate unblocking of Telegram and all the IP addresses recently blacklisted by Roskomnadzor, the repeal of Russia’s new “anti-terrorism” laws and all “anti-Internet” regulations, the liquidation of Roskomnadzor and the prosecution of its head, Alexander Zharov, and the abolition of “anti-Internet lobbying.”

Anti-corruption activist Alexey Navalny has already endorsed the rally, and a hyperlink to his 2018 presidential campaign appears at the bottom of the protest’s official website.

Fined for a f&@!ing hyperlink 🤬

The Moscow City Court has fined the online chief editor of Ekho Moskvy 5,000 rubles (almost $80) for violating Russia’s media laws by publishing a blog post by presidential candidate Ksenia Sobchak on January 30 that contained a hyperlink to a video featuring obscene language. Vitaly Ruvinsky denies the charges, arguing that the radio station’s editorial board legally isn’t responsible for reporting on activity involving a presidential candidate. Ruvinsky also says Ekho shouldn’t be fined for sharing a hyperlink to a video that it didn’t even host on its own website. The station’s chief editor, Alexey Venediktov, says he plans to appeal the matter to Russia’s Constitutional Court, Supreme Court, and if necessary the European Court of Human Rights.

On January 30, Ekho shared a copy of a blog post by Ksenia Sobchak, which contained a hyperlink to a video showing a man in Grozny swearing at her.

The former governor is unwell 🤒

The Moscow City Court suspended and postponed Nikita Belykh’s appeals hearing on Friday, when the former governor suddenly felt unwell. In February, Belykh was fined 48.2 million rubles (about $770,000) and sentenced to eight years in prison for bribery. He denies the charges. The appeals case will resume on May 10. Currently incarcerated, Belykh is video-conferencing into court.

Immoral Photoshoppery 🚨

The Ural Federal University in Yekaterinburg is tackling an iniquitous case of photoediting that involves two students adding a friend’s headshot to a picture of a Nazi soldier. The image was apparently shared on the friend’s Vkontakte page for about two days, before someone anonymously informed the university’s security department that the school could have a fascist cell on its hands. In a letter reportedly written to the university’s administration, the security department urges the school to expel the three students involved in the prank.

Even though the three individuals have expressed their disapproval of racism and insisted that the montage was nothing more than a “bad joke,” the security department apparently believes that such “vile and immoral” humor is sufficient grounds to send them home without diplomas. According to the website Znak.com, the students’ classmates have already been “questioned.”

Not your average Russian mayor 👊

The mayor of Volokolamsk, Pyotr Lazarev, has rejected a request by the district’s acting head, Andrey Vikharev, to reject all permit request for public demonstrations between April 23 and May 27. Vikharev said the suspension of protests is necessary to accommodate a series of outdoor markets planned in the city’s center. Mayor Lazarev says the markets are a ploy to disrupt demonstrations against the local over-capacity landfill, which has been leaking hydrogen sulfide into the air for months.

“Honestly, everyone in Volokolamsk is sick of these markets,” Lazarev complained, saying that they happen too often and bring in outside vendors who take away business from the city’s own shops. Lazarev has already issued permits for pickets and protests from April 26 to 30, and from May 2 to 4.

Yours, Meduza