“Extremist content”, “undesirable” organizations, “LGBT propaganda”, “fake news about the army”… The list of reasons for blocking Internet sites in Russia does not stop growing. And now it is a question of banning… sites which explain how to circumvent censorship! It is in In any case, the meaning of a bill tabled on September 3 by the Russian Ministry of Digital Development, which there is little doubt will be quickly adopted by the very disciplined Federal Assembly. very popular software in Russia that allows anonymous browsing on the Internet and circumventing censorship, complain that they stop working.For an uninformed Russian Internet user, it is now very difficult to access content deemed unwanted by the Kremlin censors.
And there are more and more of them, especially since February 24, 2022. From the start of the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin decreed the blocking of Facebook, Instagram and dozens of independent media sites, and the “slowdown” of Twitter… In a few weeks, a veritable digital iron curtain has descended on Russia. At the same time, convictions of Internet users have multiplied for having published anti-war messages on social networks.
Internet users tracked
Because communications, in addition to being filtered, are also monitored. “The Russian state knows practically everything about its citizens, assures Artem Kozlyuk, founder of the NGO Roskomsvoboda, which specializes in the defense of digital freedoms. State services have the right to monitor not only traffic in real time, but also to trace the activity history of users over several months.They thus collect immense quantities of data and can compile very detailed files: trips, exchanges, calls, contacts, centers of interest… It is impossible to know what is done with this data. But it is certain that the FSB uses it.”
Again, the war accelerated the process. “We are seeing the appearance of calls for tenders for social network monitoring systems, which make it possible to track a person’s activity on the Net, continues Artem Kozlyuk. Systems capable of searching, by keywords or images, prohibited content, for example anti-war, and which would identify their authors.”
Worse, this takeover that overflows from the digital world has more and more implications for daily life. At the center of this phenomenon, a site: Gosuslugi.ru. It is a single portal centralizing all the administrative procedures for Russian citizens: enrolling their children in school, receiving their pension or social assistance, paying their fines and taxes, ordering a passport, filing a complaint with the police… Everything is done quickly, in a few clicks. Practical, modern, the Gosuslugi platform has become very popular. Nearly 100 million people, or about 2 out of 3 Russians, are registered there.
Russian-style Big Brother
“Unfortunately, it was obvious that a service used by tens of millions of our fellow citizens was going to end up being exploited by the state”, deplores Artem Kozlyuk. In 2020, Gosuslugi thus served as the basis for feeding an electronic voting system opening the door to all manipulations. On April 14, Vladimir Putin signed a law authorizing military police stations to issue mobilization orders via this portal. As soon as they are put online, the recipients are prohibited from leaving the territory, driving a car, taking out credit or buying a home.
Last June, all Gosuslugi users started receiving emails inviting them to download propaganda materials dedicated to the “special military operation” in Ukraine. Finally, on July 26, the Russian Parliament adopted a law prohibiting any Internet site based in Russia from registering new users from a foreign e-mail address. Only authentication allowed: an e-mail, a phone number based in Russia or… a Gosuslugi account. The law will come into force on December 1, 2023. In effect, this will amount to the final end of anonymity on the Internet in Russia. And full Kremlin control over it.