It appears that my (soon to be ex?) Russian readers will soon be looking at a different Internet from that which the free or Western world views.
This is because Russia, like China, Iran and North Korea (and possibly other authoritarian regimes elsewhere as the technology spreads), has decided that an open worldwide Internet is too dangerous to the regime, and wants to cut its citizens off from the Internet.
So they have developed Runet ... which is essentially a nationwide gigantic intranet. This will serve only state approved content to its netizens. An example will be that discussion of the annexation of Crimea, will only show the Russian nationalist version. In the long term they will also want to set up state controlled indigenous services as alternatives to Google and Facebook.
The Chinese, with their smartphone tracking software, Great Firewall of China, face recognition AI technology, and state approved alternatives to Ebay, Amazon, Google, Twitter and Facebook etc are much further down the track than Russia ... but with plans to create its own Wikipedia (like the Chinese alternative wiki), and a law passed that bans the sale of smartphones that do not have Russian state approved software pre-installed, Russia is catching up fast.
The rise of Chinese Nationalism, with their students in other countries hectoring people about China's annexation of Tibet, Hong Kong, or territorial claims in the South China Seas, are a direct result of decades of being fed state controlled news media and social apps.
Sadly, once the Runet system is up and running, with the Russian public only being fed a diet of nationalism, then I expect that they will start to find that they only have one view of the world ... that of the states. I will be sorry to lose the 26,840 Russian readers who have visited my blog over the years.
With all its faults and flaws, the world wide web was still a defence of human rights, and a bulwark against authoritarian abuse of those rights. Once its state controlled, its the exact opposite of that, and the world will take a step backwards.
* NB: Apologies to original street artist for adding some colours and lines for better web display.
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| Putin's Internet Wall* ...... Going Up Fast |
This is because Russia, like China, Iran and North Korea (and possibly other authoritarian regimes elsewhere as the technology spreads), has decided that an open worldwide Internet is too dangerous to the regime, and wants to cut its citizens off from the Internet.
So they have developed Runet ... which is essentially a nationwide gigantic intranet. This will serve only state approved content to its netizens. An example will be that discussion of the annexation of Crimea, will only show the Russian nationalist version. In the long term they will also want to set up state controlled indigenous services as alternatives to Google and Facebook.
The Chinese, with their smartphone tracking software, Great Firewall of China, face recognition AI technology, and state approved alternatives to Ebay, Amazon, Google, Twitter and Facebook etc are much further down the track than Russia ... but with plans to create its own Wikipedia (like the Chinese alternative wiki), and a law passed that bans the sale of smartphones that do not have Russian state approved software pre-installed, Russia is catching up fast.
The rise of Chinese Nationalism, with their students in other countries hectoring people about China's annexation of Tibet, Hong Kong, or territorial claims in the South China Seas, are a direct result of decades of being fed state controlled news media and social apps.
Sadly, once the Runet system is up and running, with the Russian public only being fed a diet of nationalism, then I expect that they will start to find that they only have one view of the world ... that of the states. I will be sorry to lose the 26,840 Russian readers who have visited my blog over the years.
With all its faults and flaws, the world wide web was still a defence of human rights, and a bulwark against authoritarian abuse of those rights. Once its state controlled, its the exact opposite of that, and the world will take a step backwards.
* NB: Apologies to original street artist for adding some colours and lines for better web display.
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