Russians bypass website blocks to access Western news sources:
A new blog post published today by Cloudflare presents statistical evidence that the netizens of Russia are adopting blockage circumvention tools pretty aggressively to access British, American, and French news sites.
At the same time, the Russian government appears unwilling to isolate the country from the global internet, as many suggested was the plan, and also unable to ramp up its resource access blockages due to quality issues.
However, Russia has blocked access to Western media outlets and social sites to control the narrative regarding its invasion of Ukraine.
As the war in Ukraine continues and Russian media is not providing evidence of success or even convincing justification for the so-called special military operation, many Russians are attempting to bypass blocks to learn more from Western news outlets.
In March, Russia's most downloaded mobile apps were various VPN tools, Telegram, and Cloudflare's own "WARP / 1.1.1.1", a privacy-focused recursive DNS resolver that can route users' requests through one of the firm's servers.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday April 06 2022, @06:30AM (14 children)
Sounds just like Twitter, Facebook, and Google.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @06:46AM (13 children)
Except that Russian television is rebroadcasting Fox News segments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @07:59AM (12 children)
citations needed
(Score: 4, Informative) by zocalo on Wednesday April 06 2022, @10:21AM (11 children)
Mother Jones [motherjones.com] (original source of story, AFAICT - most other coverage is citing/re-hashing this)
Business Insider [businessinsider.com] (adds Rep. Cawthorn to this mix)
No idea why should be a surprise - propaganda frequently takes comments out of context, so anyone being critical of western strategy, Biden and his administration, Zelensky and his administration, etc. is going to be fair game for this. Given how adversarial US media and politics is there's probably a LOT of raw material.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @02:30PM (7 children)
You sound like one of the very few level-headed independent thinkers on this website. Good on you, thank you. So many here are heavily brainwashed by liberal mainstream media. I'm stunned that people can allow themselves to be so brainwashed, especially otherwise seemingly intelligent ones. I yearn for alternate views of anything. But I have a much higher than average IQ, so...
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @02:40PM
Translation: Views that support the crooked political agenda that I am trying to push, truth be damned!
Translation: I are teh stable jenius. That's what the "J" in "Donald J. Trump" stands for: Jenius!!!1!
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday April 06 2022, @02:54PM (5 children)
I guess that is a concession that the original post was correct?
If you are looking for some alternative views maybe try reality for a bit? It's definitely an alternative to whatever you have been watching!
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday April 06 2022, @03:24PM (4 children)
Carful brah, don't want to spend more than 3 points on me per day lest you be accused of being a Democrat!
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday April 06 2022, @06:33PM (3 children)
Why would accusing anyone of being a member of a political party be an insult? That's the most idiotic thing I've heard all day.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @09:06PM
Because the instant anything political that posted by the most stupid and right-wing among us is downmodded, they come out of the woodwork claiming to be the victim of the democrats and the libtard downmod brigade. Hence the joke about DeathMonkey's own downmod making the modder a democrat.
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Thursday April 07 2022, @02:17PM (1 child)
if you still, after the last several years (at least) - still think that republican 'values' are right for you and you embrace them:
YOU ARE A HORRIBLE HUMAN BEING.
I have no republican friends and wont. not ever. no one forces anyone to join a party; but if you voluntarily STILL think that's the party for you - I dont even want to know you.
I used to tolerate them. now I dispise them. I wish bad things to all republicans who STILL feel its the right party for them and they see nothing at all wrong with it.
dammit - how much data do you need in order to finally drop the racist party?
so, yeah, admitting you are part of the authoritarian/hate party - you SHOULD be fully ashamed.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday April 09 2022, @03:48PM
I've never been a member of any political party and consider anyone who is a member of a party and isn't running for office STUPID. It's not like some kind of a game, you're hiring people for very important jobs.
And parties change. Before the 1060s the southern Democrats were the most bigoted people in America, followed by northern Democrats (followed by Republicans). The best US president in my lifetime was a Republican, Dwight Eisenhower. He pushed the interstate highway system through congress and started NASA. He warned against the "military and industrial complex".
The worst president in my lifetime was also a Republican, the only one to have never won the popular vote and the only one so bad he was impeached twice and attempted a coup.
The Republican party will do one of three things: take over the country by force, reform, or die. A party of only White racists can't possibly survive in a multiracial, multicultural society like ours.
I'd like to know why the media doesn't inform us what my grandmother who was born in 1903 said: Before WWII only the rich paid federal taxes. Now, of course, they're the only ones who don't.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday April 06 2022, @06:31PM (2 children)
When Donald Trump said Putin's invasion of Ukraine was a stroke genius, that wasn't taken out of context. He wasn't referring to a medical stroke. I swear, non-politicians in both parties are brain dead stupid. Take Illinois, You have a guy who's been doing a pretty good job following two crooks and two complete incompetents, and you're going to fire him and hire a complete unknown just because the unknown is in your club? How stupid are you? But you Trumpian, Carlson loving boot lickers are the worst, although there are Democrats almost as bad.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 3, Interesting) by zocalo on Wednesday April 06 2022, @08:21PM (1 child)
In both countries though, pretty much the entire media spectrum has been covering some of the worst events in Ukraine in pretty graphic detail, and given the sheer volume it would be a *real* stretch to assume it's all fake news staged by crisis actors, etc., so what I'm more curious about is how their supporters square away what the media is showing them against what and how their leader is saying about it. Oh, yeah, they get all their news from their little echo chambers on social media, don't they? MSM is bad, and all.
Populism, cut with a complete lack of critical thinking - it's one *hell* of a drug!
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday April 09 2022, @03:33PM
Russians are afraid to speak the truth, even to pollsters. You can't really blame them with Darth Putin as president.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @07:15AM
So censorship does not work in Czarist Putin Russia, but it does on SoylentNews? Quash that aristarchus! Bannnnnnnn him, with extra juice! Spam mod an suspected aristarchus into the ground of ACs, who are not aristarchus, and, Runaway is still an asshole driving all reasonable people from this site? Well, you do you. Netcraft confirms.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PiMuNu on Wednesday April 06 2022, @09:14AM (3 children)
What is the normalisation on the graph? Has it gone from 10 Russians to 100; or 10 million to 100 million?
What happened on 16th March to make the big spike?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @10:13AM
Aristarchus! Did I mention aristarchus? Could it be, that free speech no longer matters on SoylentNews, because, aristarchus? Or, it could be that SN is a complete Rusky operation, with the Hypno-toad Runaway, the Kim Philby janrinock, the "I will do anything for money, as long as it supports white supremacy" chromas. So they banned aristarchus. They silenced aristarchus. They did not let aristarchus speak! Aristarchus is deep-sixed! Sleeping with the fishes! Concrete galoshes! Banned and censored and shut up, that is our own dear aristarchus. Why? Aristarchus spoke the truth, that is why. Runaway is full of shit, due to ignorance, and FhatPhil is full of shit due to lying. Censorship? You think Ruskies can pull that off? Just look to SoylentNews. Past masters of the cancellation game. Aristarchus is gone, dead, don't post here no more! Mission Accomplished, in the very best George W Bush traditions. Worried, admins? Legal liability, for violating Constitutional Civil and Human rights? Fucking Poms.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @01:20PM (1 child)
Exactly.
Is this a few reasonable Russians in a sea of otherwise, or the reverse?
Is this glory seeking just a guy, a small group, or the general population?
Sadly, the longer this goes on, the more it looks like the later.
The frustrating lack of clear information is not nearly as frustrating as the West continuing to send cash for gas.
That cash could be going into a trust account in the West instead. If the gas gets cut off from the East, then cut off the Internet from the West.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday April 06 2022, @03:21PM
It's hard to tell!
How do you jugde people's opnion about a topic where expressing the wrong opinion can get you thrown in jail?
If you were in Russia right now and some rando asked you if you approved the war, how would you answer?
So take these with a huge grain of salt. I would argue they are overestimating the support given the above but you could also argue that propaganda works otherwise nobody would bother.
65% Russians Approve Of Putin's War Against Ukraine; Only 5% 'ashamed', New Poll Finds [republicworld.com]
58 percent of Russians support the invasion of Ukraine, and 23 percent oppose it, new poll shows [washingtonpost.com]
(Score: 1, Troll) by mexsudo on Wednesday April 06 2022, @11:55AM (12 children)
this bleepingcomputer article fits the western narrative, or you would not see it.
logic is lacking in the west
...Cloudflare is an insignificant player in Russia
(Score: 2, Interesting) by SomeGuy on Wednesday April 06 2022, @02:10PM (9 children)
It really should make people think about what is "true" or not.
There absolutely are "narratives". Flip channels back and forth during the noon or 5pm news and you will notice they are almost always the exact same stories reporting the exact same thing in the exact same order. Sometimes even with the exact same wording. Perhaps one channel will put the tree falling before the random shooting.
You don't have to censor media to control a narrative. All you have to do is bury the truth in crap. I'm reminded of some shootings a while back where the news stations hastily reported some raw information that strongly suggested the shootings were probably related to some sex-service gone wrong. The very next day all of the stations were backpedaling stating in no uncertain terms but without presenting any significant new information that it was "race related hatecrime". Someone really wanted that hatecrime narrative. Was the news lying? If I recall, the wording was something along the lines of "shooter charged with race related hatecrime" followed by enough random facts and figures about race related hatecrime that you forget to ask yourself if that is actually what happened.
The real truth? Probably space aliens. :P
But back to Ukraine, there probably are some things the media either are not telling us or burying. It still doesn't make a lick of sense why Putin would put Russia's economy on the line by starting a major war. Wanting a "friendly" buffer country between European countries and Russia? Doesn't add up. Either there is something else going on that we aren't being told, or Putin and pals have really gone totally bat-shit insane. And that later option is scarier. (And hence, sell more cell phones).
Which reminds me, don't forget to download our FREE weather and news alert app/spyware! Buy a new Apple(TM) or Android(TM) smart phone to run it today! Ca-ching!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday April 06 2022, @03:14PM
Notice that he makes no claim about whether the claim is true or not. Just tosses some ad hominem around and calls it a day....
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @04:10PM (3 children)
It helps to take in new information if you pull your fingers out of your ears and stop yelling "la la la! I can't hear you!"
Or maybe---just perhaps---it took some time to do their investigative reporting. Just an idea.
My suspicion is that Putin was not counting on the West being so united in their opposition to his military adventure in a neighboring country. Big miscalculation on his part.
Look, Ivan, just because it "doesn't add up" for you doesn't mean that the rest of us can't see why Putin would want a buffer between Russia and what he sees as a hostile West.
Your English needs a bit more improvement, Ivan. The correct word is latter.
Now Russian trolling comes with advertisements for their malware? Why am I not surprised?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @05:36PM (2 children)
Insightful, Informative??
The moderation in this thread is totally bizarre! Your comment goes without mentioning...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @12:12AM (1 child)
Oh, no! Did I harsh your narrative? Sorry about that!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2022, @01:36AM
I have no "narrative", you're just being a propagandizing dumbass, that's all.
(Score: 2, Informative) by fustakrakich on Wednesday April 06 2022, @05:08PM (1 child)
Like this? [youtube.com]
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @09:12PM
No not like that. Those outlets are owned by right-wing media. Get your "MSM is left wing therefore right wing media can't be MSM" narrative straight! /s
(Score: 3, Interesting) by PiMuNu on Thursday April 07 2022, @12:44PM (1 child)
> It still doesn't make a lick of sense why Putin would put Russia's economy on the line by starting a major war
Look at it from Putin's eyes:
Russia invades Chechnya - no one cares
Russia invades Georgia - no one cares
Russia invades Crimea - no one cares
Russia invades Syria - no one cares
Russia invades Eastern Ukraine - no one cares
Russia invades Western Ukraine - OMG! OMG! OMG!
Putin is probably pretty surprised by the current round of Western politican's reaction. Western politicians needing something to distract from covid malaise maybe? Unfriendly people in the White House maybe?
(Score: 2) by TheGratefulNet on Thursday April 07 2022, @02:27PM
its also a chance to WHALE (pound on) russian and send them backwards a few decades.
sad that we HAVE to do that, but sometimes when a bully is acting too violent, you have to rough him up and maybe even put HIM in the hospital, so to speak.
he did enough to trigger the west's annoyance with his bullshit. and he gave us a solid 'take the high road' reason to fuck them up, badly, for extended periods of time. likely this will last years and the russians will be neutered due to this. sad for the people, but their attitude stinks and they need to eat some crow and have the whole world see that.
they wont give up but they wont win, either. they dont have the resources anymore (HA!)
once powerful russia is a pussy state, now. again, its sad that real regular people have to suffer, but you know, most of them buy into the whole aggression thing - so - FUCK THEM, TOO.
has to happen every few decades. so this was 'time'.
and again, everyone cheers when a schoolyard bully is handed his hat to him. that's what we are seeing now. slowly but surely.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by janrinok on Wednesday April 06 2022, @02:42PM (1 child)
Cloudflare may be an insignificant player - but if people are using their DNS rather than a local one then they still have access to the sites in the West that have been blocked inside Russia. I'm sure it will not be long before that hole is plugged but unless they do actually cut the internet to the rest of the world off then there will always be intelligent people who will get round any blocks that are put in their way.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Wednesday April 06 2022, @03:16PM
Also, Cloudflare is a US company. Remember how all those indictments for Russians were nonsense because they will never set foot on US soil.
Pretty sure it's even less likely for rich Americans to set foot on Russian soil!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @04:56PM
I don't think Cloudflare follows government censorship but they are not "privacy-focused", they have a resolver precisely because they want to know all sites you access, even the minority of sites that don't use their services. Same goes for Google's 8.8.8.8, it's to cover sites that don't use Google Analytics, not to protect your privacy (why would they spend money on that?).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @05:04PM
Russians using Tor to bypass oppression may encounter Cloudflare having them jump through hoops to do that.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @07:41PM (2 children)
Don't you think Putin looks tired?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @09:44PM (1 child)
If? If??? We get enough Russian propaganda to know they read SN. Maybe not a big blip in their PR framework, but it shows up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 06 2022, @09:57PM
You are delusional. Perhaps schizophrenic.