Reports of Russia intending to leave the Internet

[betalars]

Summary

There have been reports of Russia intending to isolate itself entirely from the global internet until March 11 . A first test of this scenario has been successfully done last year. Tor and short wave Radio transmissions by the BBC might become the only source of outside information as Russia cracks down on reporting about the ongoing war.

 

Quotes

Quote

NEXTA on Twitter:
#Russia began active preparations for disconnection from the global Internet No later than March 11.

 

My thoughts

It's just wild to see how the information age changed propaganda. Leaflets, Radio transmissions and political cartoons have always been part of conflicts, but seeing governments trolling each other with memes over the internet is just wild. Seeing Russia disconnecting itself would be a bit ironic - given, that this has been an actual request by the Ukrainian government, but I am mostly worried seeing the country isolating itself from the rest of the World. This will make a necessary process of reconciliation a lot harder.

 

Sources

• Russia disconeccting from the internet during summer 2021 as reported by Reuthers
• Nexta Reporting on Russsia intending to disconnect itself from the internet by March 11 citing a telegram, that has been translated in the thread
• BBC brings back shortwave radio, as it is being blocked by russian authorities

[Vishera]

How is that related to tech?

[RejZoR]

North Korea 2.0

[Stahlmann]

If the last 2 years have tought us anything: Cyberpunk-like distopian futures are not the future anymore, but the present. Corporations having ridiculous amounts of political power, a pandemic basically holding the whole world hostage, artificial body parts that lose support by the manufacturer, and now regional internet. It gets more distopian every day.

[Rauten]

James pseudo-joked about this on Friday's techlinked, but...

 

Welp.

 

Welcome to Cold War2? I take it this means any Russian forum members are about to disappear?

[Tan3l6]

29 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

North Korea 2.0

Russia is too big to be sanctioned like North Korea, unfortunately.

Rather there are just signs of a big war in making.

[Arika]

Well thats going to suck. I have a friend in Russia....

[Lightwreather]

55 minutes ago, Vishera said:

How is that related to tech?

Well, the severance of a large National enitity from what should be a "World wide" Web does seem to be tech related in my book.

[IPD]

54 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

North Korea 2.0

China 2.0.

 

Russia is simply taking a page out of China's stuff.  They aren't going to go sans being online.  They're just going to move to an Intranet.

 

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense.  The two are bosom buddies at present.  They both have imperialist (read: territorial expansion) agendas.  And the both want to control domestic sentiment.   Once you shut off the tap for unbiased information, citizens lose the ability to fact check for themselves.  I expect that eventually you'll see crackdowns on VPN's and other things.

 

Shame that "live and let live" is such an odd concept these days.

[TetraSky]

So Russia will make their own internet, with blackjack and hookers.

[IPD]

3 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

So Russia will make their own internet, with blackjack and hookers.

To be fair, they already have the world's greatest collection of "HOLY WTF BBQ JUST HAPPENED" dashcam footage

[Tan3l6]

Putin, as somewhat pragmatic leader in the past seems to have become delusional in last/this year.

I hope NATO will deter him. Though it seems that the most of their governing body has hone the way of Zhirinovsky...

[Stahlmann]

27 minutes ago, Tan3l6 said:

Putin, as somewhat pragmatic leader in the past seems to have become delusional in last/this year.

I hope NATO will deter him. Though it seems that the most of their governing body has hone the way of Zhirinovsky...

Maybe it was just ignorance on my part but i also didn't think he was that bad. Seems like most european governments thought the same. But here we are...

[WhiteOrb]

How can I delete my own messages/replies? xD

[Lightwreather]

Oh, I just thought of a possible unintended side effect:

With the vast majority of Privateering sites being based in Russia and the surrounding regions, if Russia were to leave the internet those who sail the high seas may very well find a large portion of their fleets missing

[dizmo]

Interesting. I wonder if this will really start to light a fire under the oligarchs that are close to him. This would make it much harder to conduct business, if they're still based in the country. Though it is a short window. 

 

I give this thread about 2 more hours. 

1 hour ago, Tan3l6 said:

Putin, as somewhat pragmatic leader in the past seems to have become delusional in last/this year.

I hope NATO will deter him. Though it seems that the most of their governing body has hone the way of Zhirinovsky...

Indeed. Old age and echo chambers can do that. 

37 minutes ago, Stahlmann said:

Maybe it was just ignorance on my part but i also didn't think he was that bad. Seems like most european governments thought the same. But here we are...

Neither did the US. But as the saying goes; Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. 

3 hours ago, Vishera said:

How is that related to tech?

How is the internet not tech? There's been countless threads related to internet based things in the past. 

[BetteBalterZen]

39 minutes ago, WhiteOrb said:

How can I delete my own messages/replies? xD

You have no power here

[Helpful Tech Witch]

3 hours ago, Vishera said:

How is that related to tech?

Baca use literally everything hosted in Russia will cease to work?

[Doobeedoo]

Man the country will go back a century eventually... 

Can only hope things don't worsen. 

[Brooksie359]

59 minutes ago, J-from-Nucleon said:

Oh, I just thought of a possible unintended side effect:

With the vast majority of Privateering sites being based in Russia and the surrounding regions, if Russia were to leave the internet those who sail the high seas may very well find a large portion of their fleets missing

Don't let the music industry or movie industry know that or they will send help to get it done faster lol. Honestly I didn't think that disconnecting themselves from the internet was all that possible but I guess they had planned to do this for awhile as it probably isn't as simple as unplugging a single cord. 

[BuckGup]

Russia, China, America and many other countries are already semi private with intranets but people still manage to get into them and around things like the Great Firewall. So I don't really see how you can make a private internet for a country because it will be pure shit and have nothing on it. You also can't just make a replacement for content hosted on websites in other countries like Youtube. So all this does is make using the internet more difficult 

[Kisai]

3 hours ago, Rauten said:

James pseudo-joked about this on Friday's techlinked, but...

 

Welp.

 

Welcome to Cold War2? I take it this means any Russian forum members are about to disappear?

We've kinda been tip-toeing around Cold War 2 ever since... 2016. You have to remember that the guy in charge there, has been in charge since 1998. 

 

And most Russian forum users, here and everywhere likely curtailed their posting to all social media. I saw a Russian twitch streamer complain about the sanctions already, but they're all basically SOL if they don't leave the country at this point. Once the internet get's disconnected, only those who have contraband communications devices will be able to communicate.

 

For those who were pretty much babies when the cold war ended (eg Linus), just remember that the reason it was called the Cold War was because it was a stalemate between nuclear powers. The CW ended pretty much because the leadership died. Literately. Unfortunately it was directly handed to one person for a few years who then handed it to you-know-who.

 

Like it has to be said, politics aside, that nothing good ever comes from having "the same guy in charge forever", be it corporation, or a political entity. You might have the most wonderful person in charge, but someone shouldn't be in charge of anything for 10+ years.

 

[Dracarris]

4 hours ago, Vishera said:

How is that related to tech?

Internet?

[TOMPPIX]

Finally, I can play cs go again.

 

[Fasterthannothing]

This is going to lead to an interesting scenario. Without getting into politics Russia won't just cut off their internet they will move it essentially. China already has their own payment processing network and Russia has been getting credit card to use on that network this past week. If you move China and Russia into their own web that's a huge chunk of the world and effectively creates two world wide webs.