Over the last week, the Russian authorities have likely increased their ongoing efforts to disrupt Russian citizens’ access to Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Reports suggest many of the most popular VPNs have become unusable in some regions of Russia.

VPNs allow users to obfuscate their access to the internet, to maintain privacy and to bypass state-imposed censorship. VPNs are hugely popular in Russia, despite being illegal since 2017. They allow users to access objective international news sources, including about the war in Ukraine.

VPNs likely represent the greatest single vulnerability within the Russian state’s attempts at pervasive domestic information control. As well as increased technical disruption, the Russian state has also launched a public information campaign, attempting to scare citizens into avoiding VPNs by claiming they put their personal data at risk.

  • Black Xanthus
    8•1 year ago

    It’s posts like this that make me wonder whether the problems Lemmy.world is having are connected. If major players like Russia don’t want this news out, taking out accessible sources like Lemmy would work.

    Then again, I see China is running it’s own propaganda in its own Lemmy/c, so I’m surprised Russia isn’t