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Does the Russian govt know that vpns exist?
They do and some tech savvy people do. But a middle aged dad wanting to look up something about Ukraine doesn't.
When they’ve tried to ban Telegram even the middle aged dads learned how to use VPNs. No one has ever done so much for computer literacy.
Xi Jinping and the PRC have done that for about a billion people. The great firewall of China they call it.
Happened a hell of a long time before Xi, China walled its internet off beginning in the late 90s.
This. It limits a lot of information flow in China. Plus, VPNs can be blocked or attacked.
Plus in China VPNs are really illegal for the normal person, and they normalized this twisted idea that getting a VPN is for accessing extreme internet in the same way some regard the Dark Web. They also normalized the idea that China has everything and that the rest of the world is a chaotic dangerous mess.
So exactly the kind of people who’d be vulnerable to misinformation?
Vpn is as simple as getting an app and pressing a button.
It is relatively easy, but: firstly you need the knowledge of VPNs existing, secondly you need to want to bother with installing a vpn to gain access to a service that ostensibly has an alternative to begin with and finally some people can't even send attachments on an email. The point is that banning Wikipedia already reduces the amount of people who would be bothered to use it.
I assume people don't talk about them in authoritarian regimes either.
i keep explaining this, the average person does not know what a vpn is or what it does, or why you’d use it. simply being on reddit has made you take for granted how much you’ve learned here or elsewhere in your time on the internet.
the average person is a complete rube.
Besides that, even if I know they exist as a non-tech savvy person I have absolutely no clue if the government could find out I was using one. Is that a risk I'm willing to run?
Sometimes all it takes is someone getting restricted from an activity that a VPN would fix, like my pretty tech illiterate Dad who managed to get a VPN set up and working for him when he couldn't watch his local football team without one because of rules in the UK about showing live broadcasts of games between certain hours on a Sunday. So every time he can't make a game affected by the 3pm blackout rules he uses a VPN to let him watch the Canadian broadcast of the game.
Doesn't help that a lot of VPNs don't work in Russia so some random not terminally online person is very likely to give up after a few that don't work / work terribly.
Roskomnadzor and ISPs use packet analysis to ban traffic based on behavior, that's how deep it goes when they do want to ban something. None of those tricks with DNSs and 3rd party VPNs that are used by many people are gonna work in that case, you'll have to set up your own linux VPN on a remote server - who is going to bother?
Also you can't even pay for most of them from Russia, those "apps" where you just "press a button" in are rarely free to use comfortably.
The tech that powers the internet was built by middle aged dads and moms
but most middle aged dads and moms didn't build the internet
Yeah and humans sent a rocket to the moon. That doesn't mean every human is capable of doing it
All of them together? The knowledge was passed to every single one?
I use Facebook therefore I helped design it.
Different ones
It's not that simple, sadly. They outlawed VPNs and they've been trying to interfere with their functioning in Russia, with some limited success.
Besides, it's not like Russians can use proper VPNs anyway, since they cannot pay for them anymore and free VPNs are not really safe.
There's also Tor, but they've been trying to block it as well. Back in 2022, Tor didn't really work for me in Russia without custom bridges.
I’m a software engineer, I would like to add a few clarifications
VPNs are still legal to use in Russia, but illegal to advertise
Russian government mainly bans popular VPN providers by IPs. This could be circumvented by switching to less popular provider or setting up own VPN node. Recently they’ve also started using the technique called “deep pocket inspection”, which detects popular VPN protocols. Now only VPN protocols specifically designed to bypass censorship work reliably in Russia. Those protocols disguise their traffic as regular HTTPS. One good example is Outline.
This refers to Visa and MasterCard bans of Russian cards - one of the most stupid, inefficient measures that helps Putin immensely on many levels. Sadly, there is little one can do about it, other than open a bank account in a different country. I have a foreign card so I paid for a VPN and let all my friends and relatives use it.
This is not really true, most traffic on the modern web is end-to-end encrypted. VPN provider can only get access to domain names of websites that you are visiting, they can’t see exactly what you do on those websites, even what pages you are viewing. Information about visited domains is also available anyway to your cell provider, and to your government.
You can get in a really big trouble in Russia by using a decentralized system like Tor. There was a case where a person was imprisoned because someone else did something illegal through a Tor node that that person owned.
Yes these are important details, thank you. My memory of these things is a bit muddy so I get them wrong sometimes
Mullvad vpn doesn't work in Russia...
So how to evade this block ?
Like 50 mil of them dont even have a toilet at home, so VPN is probably no.
And it's funny because like China youre always guided to see the shiny buildings, like Russia does with Moscow, but not the reality. For example, in China, the real nterest in their market is in the "5% rich," that are like 75 million people that make a modern first world salary. The rest (94%) make less than $750 a month and up to 80% by normal definitions are in poverty, although absolute poverty ($2.15 per day has been rhetorically eliminated) about 300 million Chinese still make about $600 a month which means they probably didn't actually eliminate absolute poverty at all.
But you'd never get this impression on YouTube or for those living in their little bubbles in Shanghai, Guangzhou, or Beijing.
Countries are very good at hiding their poverty on an international stage
Like 50 mil without toilets, but in desperate need of wikipedia? Duuu-uude...
Smart phones outnumber home with toilets.
I'd say smartphones outnumber people.
they know.
funny enough, nothing could ever do as much as western public to make russians, even ex-liberls, a lot more pro-russian.
just look at comments here.
Do you know that the vast majority of people do not use them?
Sure. All in the top use it to circumvent the bans they helped to impose👍
You gotta get that raunchy gay porn
Well, if noncon is their kink they just need to show up in the barracks, plenty of raping there I heard. No VPN needed.
Good luck with that, Pukin. Russians have been experts for 100+ years at finding ways to get the truth. Not long ago, there was a big stampede by Russians to download Wikipedia in anticipation of it being banned. I didn't even know you can download the whole fuckin' thing, and I think this is just hilarious.
The majority of the people, unfortunately, don't have access to the information. Even in Moscou, the majority of the population believes Russia is under attack.
Pretty sure that it’s not like this
Comment removed by Reddit
wow wow wow there buddy, no sane person calls real people orcs.
Same as People of usa didn't complain as much about invasion of Iraq(2003), Vietnam war, Afghan war and list goes on, They both got good propaganda and Russia is authoritarian, Even if wanted common people can't do shit, also stop dehumanizing people you dislike, every human is same piece of shit, except fews(you and i ain't one of them)
Don’t see even a hint of it
Just one problem: most have really easy access to the truth and they collectively decided they don’t like/trust any of it.
Not unlike here in America. :(
You're laughing but it's exactly the same with China and do you see anyone trying to do anything for the Uyghurs or Tibetans? Truth is lost on these people.
Worst part is even the diaspora often chooses to ignore reality because it's easier than confronting the fact that their homeland is guilty of heinous crimes.
Iirc it's not that large. Maybe a few 10s of GB
They should just translate Conservapedia - - the propaganda is already written for them.
https://www.conservapedia.com/Vladimir_Putin
That was the funniest rabbit hole I’ve been down in a while, I almost can’t believe it’s not satire
Clicked on the article for the second law of thermodynamics and the first paragraph cites Hebrews 1:10 lol. the human mind will never cease to amaze me
Infinity denial made me laugh…
Pi is pretty good too.
Wait it isn’t?? Holy hell…
Wow, conservapedia is legit insane. The entire article is beyond words and so dishonest. It didn't even ease into the bullshit, just full frontal from the start.
Article makes Putin out to be good guy.
"Endorses Biden in 2024 election."
You are assuming that the people behind this idea are trying to be efficient. Wrong. They want to do it in the most expensive way imaginable. They want to tell Pootin how cool and patriotic their idea is, spend millions of dollars of tax money on development, steal most of it, and let the project quietly die. We already have hundreds of those “Russian wikipedias”, “Russian iPhones”, “Russian Boeings”, “Teslas”, “Googles” and whatnot, it is insane, you have no idea.
Wikipedia is not banned in Russia though.
Correct, Russia forked wikipedia and is hijacking the traffic away from the legitimate source.
I'd consider this just a symptom of wikipedias general behaviour regarding admin approved state sanctioned misinformation.
On german wiki, there have been tons of creative uses of history by ukrainian and israeli (probably paid) editors to repeat their state line. Russians do the same, but are cracked down on.
wikis largest challenge is the internal hierarchy it created that is of seniority (and subservience), which can overrule facts.
Certain topics will continue to become unresearchable and decline in quality because of the purging of sources.
This is why i only work on articles on central europe in the early modern era, since those are not politicially relevant to foreign actors or ideologies, and obscure.
This is even worse in popular or relevant languages, e.g. US-based editors arbitrating in favour of ukrainian interpretations in russian wikis, and visible to all in english wiki.
They cracked down on Russians adding Russian stuff but then the Russians started offering free river cruises in Russia for non Russians to add Russian friendly stuff to articles. That's when I gave up on wikipedia.
exactly, it's overrun with state paid editors that volunteers can't keep up with.
Censoring defeats the point tho.
Defeating that point is the point i guess
Blyatipedia.
Breekipedia
cykapedia
Who needs Wikipedia when your president can just explain everything in long-winded Asperger syndrome fueled blathers with Tucker Carlson?
Saying Putin has Asperger syndrome is rather offensive, but only towards people with Asperger.
people with Asperger's: "what'd he say fuck me for?"
Slight ableism there
Slight?
And
Using autism as an insult to describe possibly the most evil person on the planet rn... Not a fan.
with all do respect, and what?
english wikipedia pushed US narrative for years, nobody has any issues with that.
Sure, English wikipedia is definitely not free from bias.and is definitely not perfect. But, one can also see plethora of articles, content on English wikipedia that is critical of the USA, USA foreign policy. What I mean is English wikipedia definitely does have biases and mistakes, but it is an undeniable fact that English wikipedia is much less biased than the copied wikipedia that is edited by the Russian government.
Indeed. The people throwing a fit in this thread are the epitome of "It's ok when we do it".
Lefties love taking control of online communities so they can shove their opinions down people's throats and appear to be the majority, but when someone else does it all of a sudden it's a crime against humanity and human rights and whatever else.
And this is how idiot Russians end up digging trenches at Chernobyl and have no clue why they dying.
Damb, why didn't America think of that: https://www.conservapedia.com/Main_Page
I mean “our” Wikipedia is freely edited by state entities too…
On the other hand the English version of wikipedia is very censored and biased aswell.
Wikipeida in itself has gone way to far from its initial intent, and has way to many rules.
So now it's double censored? Wikipedia has been dogshit for a long time putting PC opinion above all else.
Wikipedia isn’t banned in Russia
Russia is ran by cowards, crooks, and psychopaths.
No doubt they erased all information about the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact.
I was actually surprised that Putin even mentioned it in his interview with Tucker Carlson. The way he framed it was completely dishonest, but he did mention it.
Russia surely can learn a lot fom China.
Based on the way back machine, this already happened on “normal” Wikipedia many times.
So like Rutube?
Fake As always
Didn't they already do that a couple of years ago?