Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that basically prohibits anonymous web surfing in his country.
In fact, effective Nov. 1, it bans forms of technology that allow anonymous access to prohibited websites στη Ρωσία. Η απαγόρευση αυτή καλύπτει τις υπηρεσίες που επιτρέπουν στους ανθρώπους να χρησιμοποιούν το Internet anonymously, such as virtual private networks (VCPNs) and proxies, and requires ISPs to block websites that host these services.
Leonid Levin, Russian chairman of the parliamentary committee on information and communication policy, told the news agency RIA Novosti that law "includes only restricting access to information already prohibited by law or court order."
The blacklist of Russian websites, which was introduced in 2012, was originally intended to be applied to websites that contained illegal drugs, child pornography, and suicides, but in 2013 it was extended to any content suspected of being "extremist." The amendment allows for flexible interpretation, and allows Russia to ban any material that criticizes the views of the current governor or appears to weaken the government's power.
2015, for example, Russia banned briefly Reddit and Wikipedia along with pages that have content for drug use. At that time, Nikolay Kononov, editor-in-chief of DigitalMag.ru, said that these moves were less relevant to the content of the web pages and more were done to show that they can ban what they want, whenever they want. It's a show of intimidation. "
Russia is not the only country that banned tools for anonymity Web surfing, such as VPNs. This month China announced that it would place restrictions on unauthorized VPNs, and recently, All the applications VPNs have been removed from the Apple App Store version in China.
