Tools behind Belarus internet censorship potentially revealed:
According to a Bloomberg report, the technology used to block much of the internet access during the recent presidential elections in Belarus has come from a US-based company.
The report states that Sandvine Inc., had supplied the necessary equipment to the Lukashenko government a few months earlier through an intermediary.
On August 9, Belarus held the presidential elections where Alexander Lukashenko was elected for the sixth consecutive time. However, the Election Day was marked by irregularities that cast doubt on the transparency of the elections.
In addition to the barricades built by security forces that prevented the passage of civilians to Minsk, Belarus' capital, the internet services in the country had a major disruption that affected access to websites such as social networks, news pages, and messaging applications.
The disruption lasted for up to three days, and there are still websites that are inaccessible in a normal way, so citizens need to use tools such as VPNs or specialized browsers.
[...] This would not be the first time the technology has been accused of being used to repress a nation. Citizen Lab, a Toronto security firm, had indicated that in 2018 equipment from this manufacturer was used in internet blocks that occurred in Egypt and Turkey. Sandvine Inc. said this investigation was false.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday August 30 2020, @03:37AM (2 children)
Probably some sinister place like Bangladesh or Jordan, the places where you get cheap textiles. Unless, you're suggesting that someone kept a zillion Nazi flags stored for 70 years. In which case, I'd suggest Russia as the most likely source.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2020, @09:17AM (1 child)
It's not so much where the Nazi flags were made, more the fact that someone had already ordered up sufficient quantities of said flags for them to magically appear in numbers and then having available a sufficient percentage of the population knowing full well the history of said flags but who don't care about the obvious connotations or consequences of them waving the things in public at this point in time.
As to who?, simplifying the mess to pro-anti Russia factions where both sides and their 'international sponsors' are all scheming shitheads, on the one hand the flags will be a rallying point for the 'nostalgic' anti-Russian factions of the Belarus population whose 'ideals' naturally lead them to collaborate with the Nazis back then in their 'glory days', on the other they're a red rag to the bull for the pro-Russian factions ('remember the great patriotic war...').
It benefits both sides here in the game of shit stirring for these flags to be there, but, I'd say that the pro-Russian factions probably have a bit more to gain by their presence apropos propaganda. They can point them out to the neutral section of the international community and say 'see, this trouble, it's bloody Nazis that we're fighting against here again', and they'll also cause unease and division within their opposition Belarus faction who, although they might be anti-Russian, they're also anti-Nazi.
Welcome to 21st century humanity, despite our alleged technical sophistications, it's depressingly fucking amazing how much trouble you can still cause by merely waving simple bits of coloured rag around...
Sheep herding, eh?
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Sunday August 30 2020, @11:35AM
They aren't Nazi flags BTW - they've been in use since 1918. But sounds like you don't care about the obvious connotations.
Only one side is shit-stirring in this thread.