Russia tests cutting itself off from the rest of the internet

To the people thinking this means Russia will no longer be able to interfere with other countries over the internet: you are probably mistaken. Disinformation teams will still be connected to the internet. All this will mean is Russians having even less exposure to the world outside of what little Vladolf wants them to see.

It will probably make the European CS2 servers less toxic though.

Less hackers in games?

🤔
- Less hackers in games?
  
  Half of the people in Jita 4-4 disappear overnight.
How are we going to get more treasures like "Blending in with the Russians"?
It's not about what Russians can get from the outside, it's more about what they can get to the outside.

I think the idea is to have some capacity to temporarily preserve some connectivity, while mowing down protesters or something like that.

They are doing such exercises for like 10 years btw.

But when the war in Ukraine stops with some "mission accomplished" ceasefire, there will likely be more violent signs of popular disagreement with Putin. Because, well, people with combat experience will come back. Some of them to ask for money on the streets, some of them to abuse their relatives and neighbors, and some of them to do crime, and some of them probably to stir shit up.

Russia tests cutting ~~itself~~ their citizens off from the rest of the internet

The state would certainly continue to interfere with the rest.

In the long term is will fuck over their ability to hack stuff. You're essentially ruining people's ability to develop talent at tech. Even if u want to train them in it as military, it would be new to them.
- Nah, they'd just do what NK does and pull out the "brightest" and train them in cyber
If everybody but the state is blocked, then any connections from Russia would be pretty fucking obviously the state. Honestly, that's the best thing that could happen, since it would make figuring out what they are doing easy as fuck. But I have no doubt they are smart enough to just send their teams to China or something like North Korea does.
- Belarus is a puppet state of Russia. Route outbound traffic through there to fuck with Western elections, or run a VPN.

Wouldn’t it collapse their economy? Like how many Russians are digital sex workers selling content to the rest of the world? And doesn’t a shitton of money flow into Russia via ransomware

Shh. Just smile and wave.
Like how many Russians are digital sex workers selling content to the rest of the world?

I think those will move somewhere with Internet connectivity.
You know, I somehow very highly doubt the Kremlin cares much about how sex workers might be affected.
Are there even any payment processors they can use for that? I remember it being an issue when the sanctions hit.
Wow, you are really brainwashed if you think the macro-economy of a country depend on these...
- No lie. Russia is a petro state above all else.
- I’m just joking dingus

Country Self-Defederation

Defederation to go with their defenestration.

As a queer person in a place currently under russian control, I find a lot of the comments in favour of the censorship problematic. Being gay in public is illegal here, so a lot of our queer people find communities on the Internet. Being cut off from those would be terrible.

Sorry you’ve been saddled with that, friend. I hope things get better in Russia (or Ukraine, Transnistria, or Georgia, think that covers all the places they occupy) in your lifetime
- I hope I'll escape before it collapses, otherwise life will be unnecessarily difficult for a decade or two
Plus, there are things in Russia that I want. Like Starsector
I got your 6.
- Oh I bet you do... 😉

Russian Federation? M-more, more like, like... Russian De-Federation, am I right?

I'm only familiar with the magnificent russian defenestration rate.

It's as close to 1 as a country can get.

cs.rin.ru and rutracker ;_;

Also many people from the cracking scene y general.

On the one hand, oh no, not the fitgirl repacks!

On the other, I spent an hour last night failing to get my controller to work with her repack of Yakuza kiwami, so maybe it's for the best...
- Fitgirl currently lives in Latvia according to her website.

Again.

They do this every few years.

It is like those "drills" with fighter jets flying close by. Everyone does it occasionally to test reaction time. And every time it is a breaking world news.
- Nah, it doesn't always make the news. I know of one time where they flew right over my house and there was no mention of it anywhere, so I tell this story every time anyone mentions those "routine" fly overs.
  
  It was New Year 2019-2020 about noon.
  
  The MIG came in from the Kattegat coast and roared through a fjord well below reasonable eardeafening altitude, which made me go outside to see what the fuck was going on. It got intercepted by one of our own F-16s and they did a few rounds of dog chasing right above my head before it flew like hell back towards Russia. The fucker must've dodged the Swedes on the way here.
  
  Way out of line. It's completely reckless to put some kid into a machine like that and have them fly this close to residential areas. Who knows what would've happened and how many people would've been hurt if the idiot had hit a tall antenna or lost control from the g-force or whatever. They were flying low, fast and swirling like moth being chased by a flyswatter.
  
  The Russians are reckless assholes even in peace.

Fuck. Please don't take down Sci hub... I know there are mirrors elsewhere, should I be worried?

I'm not even going to make the usual joke, by saying sarcastically that I don't use it and wouldn't recommend it to anyone. It's the biggest contributor to scientific progress in the last decade and I'm tired of pretending it's not

Lmao is russia gonna be even worse than China? At least China still somewhat have access to foreign websites (emphasis on the "somewhat").

Edit: Also, aren't telephones still working? Just call a friend/relative outside of the country to obtain information, or ask someone who has a friend/relative out of the country and ask for information on your behalf.

Have they banned mail yet? Try using mail lol.

They're gonna need to do a nationwide lockdown to stop all information.

(Funny thing is, no matter how hard China tries, I (I'm in the US) can still call relative in China and tell them all the info that the CCP has hidden from them)

Also, aren't telephones still working? Just call a friend/relative outside of the country to obtain information, or ask someone who has a friend/relative and ask for information on your behalf.

In Putin Russia friend calls you! And by friend I mean your neighbor, and by call you I mean call the police to arrest you because you have dared to ask for information. Straight to the gulag for you!
- That's not how it works really. In Putin's Russia, just like in every similar regime in history, most people talking free-minded stuff or even protesting don't get punished in any way. But some random ones do get jail sentences with the whole list of convictions. And those sentenced are sometimes not even very keen in their views, that's what helps the effect. You know that anything you say on political subjects can be used against you, and it will be random and unjust, because a lot of people say the same and don't get hit with the proverbial brick of Russian law enforcement. So as a result some people talk all they want and some people are afraid of political subjects being even touched upon in their presence.
  
  The former group existing doesn't really hurt the regime. The latter group existing helps it. And they talk very little to each other on political subjects, which is the most useful result - another category of separation.
  
  The whole point of Putin's psychological strategy against Russians is in making a lot of categories of separation and reasons for apathy. It doesn't rely on any beliefs being instilled or any active support being called upon. Just that nobody believes anything or does anything.
  
  That's optimal for preserving power, and support is replaced with enormous strategic resources, but as we can see, those resources are not enough. Still, I think it'll be many years till that regime falls like Syrian one just did, and yes, just like in Syria, it may fall not to the most pleasant people.
The smart ones all know how to use VPNs as well. They know what's up.

Crazy thing is they only need to control the masses who are mostly uneducated or don't care enough to figure out what's going on. Turns out that even the USA has a massive group of the latter type.
- Turns out that even the USA has a massive group of the latter type.
  
  What?! But 'Murica! Land of the Free!
Is that right, you can just like call China, no Great Phone Firewall?
- Yeah. My parents always calls and talk to my aunts and uncles in China. I mean you can say things like "Xi Jingping is stupid" and nothing would happen, but if you say "So lets kill Xi Jingping" that'd gonna get you in trouble (at least, my relative in China would, I'd be safe in the US).
  
  Basically, the reason is, China still need to conduct trades and bussiness with the world, so they allow some level of freedom to keep people happy, but wechat groups shitting on Xi is gonna mysteriously disband. (people aren't gonna even gonna get arrested unless you're the group creator) A one to one conversation isn't gonna cause a protest unlike internet forums or group chats, that why (at least, why I think) they don't care about phone calls.
  
  People have a misconception that China is nazi Germany, or East Germany, but its not that bad. (I mean its not "great" but its not "nazi germany", you get what I'm saying?)
  
  Edit: Although, if something happened and there were to be nationwide protests in China, I'd bet they'll cut off phone calls and make an excuse like "riotors sabotaged the cell towers" or some BS like that.
  
  Edit 2: Fun fact: Vietnam doesn't even block Google, the last time I checked. Some youtuber went to Vietnam and Google works somehow.
No offense but this is incredibly short sighted and you're assuming the average person seeks out new information. We really don't and are more exposed to it in our daily lives of consumption. In 5, 10, 15 years it will increasingly become a problem being cut off from the outside world. Even now many believe the propaganda
It's not about restricting information. It's not a problem in Russia really.

It's about simplifying surveillance, so that in some civil war scenario the Internet connectivity were still there, but only the controlled and monitored kinds of it.

And also it is - it really is - about preserving connectivity if backbone cables going into Russia from abroad get severed or shut down.

I still think all this is about civil war scenarios. Russia's history in the last 30 years is about its elite preserving itself at the expense of geopolitical power. They are just preparing for another stage.

Finally, I'll have decent teammates in Countrstrike 2.

This sucks, I've met so many very cool and interesting Russian people. The internet is meant to connect people not box them in an echo chamber.

yeah, you met two cool russian people. Millions of older family members are being bombarded with propaganda from the rest of the russians that are less cool.
- And disconnecting these people from the internet will help them how.. exactly? Oh right you don't care about them because they have different beliefs.
- That's the Russian government. The Russian government will not cease cyber attacks. This is only to stop citizens being able to find information.
  
  The amount Russians working in troll farms is nothing compared with the amount of good hearted decent Russian people and I'm saying this as a massive Ukraine war simp.

DO IT

Their hacking teams will still be connected.
- I meam, the rest of the world could cut them off.
- would make it a lot easier to identify malicious traffic - all of it :)
No, let's not encourage this even as a joke.

All cutting Russia off from the rest of the internet will do is making them more radicalized and give even less opportunities for good ideas and good people to fight back.

That's why China does it. That's why Iran did it.

It will be a dark day for piracy...

Luckily, libgen and sci hub are not based there

I hope rutracker will stay available :P

tbf the internet is going to consist mostly of 3 things in the future:

propaganda
scientific information
funny cat videos

So I guess it's not really a surprise that this is happening.

I was gonna say you forgot porno but then

scientific information
- funny "cat" videos
  
  cat as in pussy
You mean the clearnet and you put advertising under propaganda, which is fair, but advertising I feel is a distinctly heinous thing we could hate all on its own!
Tell me you use an ad blocker without telling me.

The worst (to me, anyway) part is that a LOT of pirate stuff will disappear if the russian internet gets gated

Usenet still exists.
- Gotta pay for access to any worthwhile server
- Any good starting point or worthwhile server that can be recommended? I don't mind paying, I'm paying more for the arr than for any of the subscriptions, I just dont want to have to deal with the media company bullshit anymore
Meh, loads of other places

So turning it into an intranet.

That’s where all the best illegal movies come from!

Lol peace suckas

They're really into cable cutting these days. Maybe we should help.

So we help russia become an IRL echochamber?
- Imagine how fast the Russian IT grinds to a halt without SO

Noooo! My sports streams!

This is a sad day

I see a lot of comparisons to China's great wall but i'd wager North Korea is way ahead on that...

BTW, I've seen an article that China is considering the relaxation of their great firewall.

Something about Chinese citizens being ideologically solid enough. I guess that's one way to say that now with Palestine and everything else nobody really thinks that the Western world and the free world are synonyms.
- ideologically solid enough
  
  They have been manipulated into being some of the biggest racists on the planet.
- Riiiight...we can trust our people to choose Maoism over hot singles in their area.

Gladly, no more fucking Putin Bots.

Their bots will access the net
I'm sure they will still be around.
Are you really that naive?
Unfortunately the bots are state sponsored so they will be allowed to bypass this.
You know ips can be filtered to still have access right?
To all the people downvoting this, look at this comment https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/comment/15369807

@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]
- If that were true, it should be easy to block all the crypto attacks coming from Russia, right?
  
  Even now, hospitals (for example) could just whitelist their own country IPs, block Russian ones, and bam! No more Russian crypto ransom attacks right?
  
  Wait, why haven’t they just done that already? Could it be that IT teams are already taking this precaution but attackers, especially ones with state funding, can route their traffic through IPs not attributed to Russia?
  
  Again, are you that naive?
- You make a lot of assumptions about who down voted what.
  
  Here is a hint. You are the first person I down voted in this thread.

Yeah - and I'm Dolly Parton. Everything that Russian press puts out is lies. There are only two reasons why Russia isn't an abandoned strip mall: Oil and the Internet.

Good

Edit: actually not good. Disinformation agencies will still have access, so hexbear and .lm will remain. Only citizens will be punished and will be cut from non-prpaganda sources.

Yup, it's the opposite of good. Russian citizens are getting screwed here.
Putin is openly anti-communist.
- Agree. If the so called communists of Lemmy understood that we would see much less support for the genocide of Ukrainians.
The majority of the people in those instances are probably not working with the state, they're just what the Soviet Union used to refer to as "useful idiots". So they would indeed be blocked if Hexbear and lemmy.ml are hosted in Russia.

Good fucking riddance. (No offense cool innocent Russian people.)

What makes you think the worst parts won’t still get through or be allowed through…like troll farms or hacking groups?
- Well if they cut themselves off, then why wouldn't western nations just finish the job and block all Russian IPs from connecting? Make them travel outside of Russia to set up propaganda machines. Sure, it won't have much of an effect, but it'll annoy them, and that's something.

Isn’t this more a test of their own internal stability? They’ve made it clear they would disrupt the rest of the worlds communications and if their own systems are self sustaining they would take no hits from their own antics

Xis puppet is learning another trick from its master

Big lan party But I'm sure there will be outside content somehow

Someone will be smuggling microfiche behind the iron curtain...wait wrong century.

Wait, so just like that, we're gonna lose access to lemmy.ml and hexbear? Oh no! Woe, woe unto us! How will we survive this?

The Splinternet | This Is How The Internet Dies

Then who will post on reddit?

They should grow a pair and actually do it like China has.

Nah. The internet should not be segmented like this.
- They're the ones choosing to make it that way so fine let them segregate themselves. It's not like we're entitled to their participation nor do most of us care either way.
*northkorea

Oh man old-games.ru will be gone from access

So much rare untouched abandonware there

Any got the backup torrent of russia, all of russia?

I have a suspicion that they have a virus that they want to spread and protect themselves from

Yeah that works real well for NK

Be good practice for when the rest of the world cuts them off for real.

Could they just stay that way?

And nothing of value was lost.