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posted by Blackmoore on Thursday December 04 2014, @11:58PM   Printer-friendly
from the great-firewall-of-rus dept.

Russia has blocked access to GitHub after finding a text file in a repository entitled 'suicide.txt'. Surely this is pretext for Russia's continuing move towards isolation. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8692584

Techcrunch has Russia Blacklists, Blocks GitHub Over Pages That Refer To Suicide

Developers in Russia are putting up their feet today — that is, after they have finished stomping around in frustration for a little while. It’s emerged that Russia’s regulator RosComNadzor has blocked GitHub after the popular software and coding collaboration platform was found to be hosting content related to suicide — specifically, see this file that details 32 ways to kill yourself.

The “block” effectively amounts to an order to ISPs to restrict access to the site. And because GitHub works on HTTPS, providers can only comply by restricting access to the entire site, rather than individual pages. According to Russian blog Meduza, several leading ISPs have already complied with the order, including Beeline, MTS, MGTS and Megafon.

The block reignites the debate over how Russia’s government decides what is and what is not appropriate Internet content for people in Russia. The country’s firewall, when it was originally raised in 2012, was controversial not only because of concerns that it would be used against freedom of speech (especially in cases when that speech was critical of the state), but also because it was deemed to be too heavy-handed in how it would get implemented.

 
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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by sigterm on Friday December 05 2014, @12:56AM

    by sigterm (849) on Friday December 05 2014, @12:56AM (#122799)

    I suspect the real reason the site was blocked had nothing to do with suicide, but rather that the "suicide" document was a rather cleverly worded criticism of the corrupt Russian oligarchy.

    The document appears to outline 32 ways one can kill oneself, some horrific (decapitation by train, setting oneself on fire), others ridiculous (painting your body with oil paint). Each is rated according to how it guarantees certain death and how long it will take, and there's a comment field mentioning related difficulties, the level of pain one must endure and other issues.

    Then at the very end comes method #32: Provoking an important official. It is described as being an instant and pretty much fool-proof way to commit suicide, which is probably true, and I would guess the sarcastic publication of this truth (typical Russian humour, BTW) for everyone to see made some of the higher-ups in the Russian government throw a hissy fit.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 05 2014, @01:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 05 2014, @01:08AM (#122803)

    Good to see I am not nuts. I wrote similar 2 decades ago. For a laugh.

    • (Score: 2) by Subsentient on Friday December 05 2014, @02:46AM

      by Subsentient (1111) on Friday December 05 2014, @02:46AM (#122826) Homepage Journal

      We're all crazy around here. I'll get you a tinfoil hat, compliments of the undead gerbil swarm.

      --
      "It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by pnkwarhall on Friday December 05 2014, @04:56PM

        by pnkwarhall (4558) on Friday December 05 2014, @04:56PM (#122965)

        If our current culture is "sane", I'm proud to be considered crazy.

        --
        Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 05 2014, @03:12AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 05 2014, @03:12AM (#122832)

    Number 33.
    Upgrade your pacemaker software to include systemd.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 05 2014, @04:20AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 05 2014, @04:20AM (#122840)

      #34 Upgrade your pacemaker to Windows