War censorship exposes Putin’s leaky internet controls
Pages from the U.S. State Department's Global Engagement Center report released on Aug. 5, 2020, are seen in this photo. Long before waging war on Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin was working to make Russia's internet a powerful tool of surveillance and social control akin to China's so-called Great Firewall. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)
BOSTON (AP) — Russia’s increasingly strict online censorship measures have paradoxically exposed major shortcomings in the Kremlin’s efforts to make the Russian internet a powerful tool of surveillance and social control akin to China’s so-called Great Firewall.
Any Russian with a modicum of tech smarts can circumvent Kremlin attempts to starve the population of fact.
That has put foreign providers of internet bandwidth and associated services in a bind.
They face public pressure to punish the Russian state for its war on Ukraine.
But they are wary of helping stifle a free flow of information that can counter Kremlin disinformation.