Austin, Dusseldorf Since a court ruling on Monday, Facebook and Instagram have something in common with the Taliban and Alexei Navalny’s civil rights movement: They are considered “extremist organizations” in Russia and are officially banned. The networks had already been blocked beforehand.
Officially, Russia is reacting to a decision by Meta: the parent company of Facebook and Instagram has temporarily relaxed its rules for Ukrainian users, and calls for violence against the Russian military are no longer rigorously deleted.
But there is much to suggest that Russia is fundamentally bothered by the networks. Citizens find there undesirable information about the war in Ukraine, which disrupts Russian propaganda.
For years, Russia has been using legal and technical means to control the Internet in the country. With the attack on Ukraine, the desire for an Internet firewall and a state information monopoly is greater than ever.
But now the Western world is also discussing whether Russia should be isolated in terms of data technology. With modern means, a new “iron curtain” could be created that runs through the World Wide Web.
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Even today, many pages on the global Internet can hardly be reached from Russia. International news portals such as the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America have been blocked since the beginning of the war at the latest. This also applies to the Latvia-based platform Meduza. The media and telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor justifies the bans by saying that the portals spread misinformation. There are already similar threats against YouTube and Twitter.
With the exception of the newspaper “Novaya Gazeta”, there are no longer any independent Russian media, reports the organization Reporters Without Borders. Since the parliamentary elections in 2021, the pressure on the editors has increased significantly.
How Russia filters unwanted information from its network
How Russia technically implements the blocks is unclear. Alena Epifanova still knows quite a bit about it. She researches Russia’s domestic and foreign policy in cyberspace at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). Local companies are officially obliged to install technology for the so-called “deep packet inspection” (DPI), she says.
With such technologies, data packets can be monitored and filtered. According to expert estimates, at least 70 percent of Internet service providers are already equipped with it. “Now that the authorities have blocked Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, we see that Russian DPI technology is quite successful.”
Yandex plays an important role, with its search engine, its own browser and its e-mail service, which offers a service similar to Google’s. Yandex cooperates closely with the Russian secret services, saves data and filters out certain media using its search engine and browser.
Russian Prosecutor’s Office officials take part in a hearing on the classification of meta-platforms Facebook and Instagram as extremist organizations.
(Photo: IMAGO/SNA)
However, the Russian measures are not as impermeable as the “Great Firewall” in China. This is due to the construction. “The Russian Internet is conveniently connected to the international Internet via cables and servers, and many foreign companies took part in its construction,” says Epifanova.
In China, on the other hand, the Internet was built from the outset as a centralized and state-organized network. Today, the People’s Republic not only blocks global networks such as Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. It also slows down access to almost all international websites, making it reluctant to use it. Domestic Internet companies such as Tencent and Baidu also employ thousands of censors who delete content critical of the government.
It is still possible to read independent Internet newspapers – via detours
With a little technical understanding, the blocks in Russia can still be circumvented – with a Virtual Private Network (VPN), for example, which encrypts the connection and thus removes control. The number of users of such services in Russia has multiplied within a few weeks. For the general public, however, the application is not trivial, says Ulrike Gruschka, who is responsible for Eastern Europe at Reporters Without Borders.
People in Russia can still get independent information via the messenger service Telegram. In 2018, the supervisory authority failed to block the app, triggering mass protests. Independent media are now using their own channels there, as are the Russian authorities.
>> Read also: Deepfakes: In war we can no longer believe our eyes
But in the future, it may become even more difficult for people in Russia to access international websites and independent information. Due to public pressure, some Western technology companies that are important for the digital infrastructure, such as the Internet service providers Lumen and Cogent, have withdrawn from the country. The result: Access to websites – especially abroad – is noticeably slower in Russia. Netflix and Tiktok are also restricting their services.
With a “kill switch” the West could kick Russia off the grid
In addition, tough measures from the EU threaten. Because for the first time there is also a discussion there about cutting internet connections with Russia. On the one hand, the Ukrainian government is demanding appropriate measures. On the other hand, cybersecurity considerations speak in favor of it.
If Russia were separated from the global Internet by a so-called kill switch, the rest of the world would be better protected against Russian hacker attacks. Experts warn of such attacks as retaliation for the sanctions imposed on Russia.
“We will discuss intensively in the coming months,” said the Vice President of the EU Commission, Margrethe Vestager, in a round of talks at the US technology festival South by South West. However, she also made it clear that this is a tough decision: “Do we really want to sacrifice the Internet as we know it for cybersecurity?”
>> To listen: Podcast Handelsblatt Crime – How real is the danger of Russian hacker attacks?
The non-profit organization Icann, which could implement this, has rejected the Ukrainian demands. Maintained from Los Angeles, this virtual phone book ensures that Internet addresses can be called up correctly. This means that whoever manages such a directory can determine who can access which page on the Internet and from where.
“We are taking steps to ensure that the way the internet works is not politicized,” wrote Icann CEO Göran Mary. You have no authority to impose sanctions. However, the discussion is not over. The first demands for her resignation have already been made.
More: Cyber wars of the future: What experts warn of