Netizen Report: Russia Slams Indy Media Sites, Workers

An "unidentified" soldier is defending this Russian-speaking cat. "Thanks for the fact that I'm no longer a "kit"" (Ukrainian for "cat" (kit) is a homonym of Russian for whale (kit)). Anonymous image found online.

An unidentified soldier appears to be defending a Russian-speaking cat, who mocks the situation. Image not attributed.

Ellery Roberts Biddle, Lisa Ferguson, Weiping Li, Hae-in Lim, Bojan Perkov, and Sarah Myers contributed to this report.

Global Voices Advocacy's Netizen Report offers an international snapshot of challenges, victories, and emerging trends in Internet rights around the world. This week's report begins in Russia, where pressure on independent news sites spiked last week amid rapidly rising tensions surrounding Crimea.

Under an order from the attorney general, three opposition news portals—Kasparov.ru, Grani.ru, and EJ.ru—were blocked on accusations that they called for “illegal activity and participation in mass events that are conducted contrary to the established order.” Also blocked was the immensely popular website of blogger and opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who is currently under house arrest in relation to embezzlement charges. In addition, the editor of the leading news website Lenta.ru was fired from her job following pressure from the Kremlin. According to a letter [ru] posted on the site by Lenta.ru employees, her dismissal violates Russian media laws. Russian journalist Alexander Erenko was also fired from his job after reposting a critical Facebook comment calling on Putin to “occupy” Russia's Vologodsk Region, where public infrastructure is in disrepair and many are without access to health care.

Free Expression: We don't chat? Writers’ social media accounts deactivated in China

The public instant messaging accounts of several popular writers on the Chinese social media platform WeChat were deactivated on March 13, the last day of the National People’s Congress session. In 2013, WeChat’s popularity rose dramatically—social media experts attributed the shift to the platform’s status as a popular alternative for those wishing to avoid censorship on platforms such as Sina Weibo. According to the China Internet Information Centre, 37% of users who quit Weibo last year started using WeChat, which is run by Internet giant Tencent. The Chinese government has a history of tightening its control over speech during politically sensitive moments like the NPC meetings.

Last week in Venezuela, numerous TunnelBear users reported they were unable to access the VPN service. This comes several weeks after TunnelBear made its services free for Venezuelan susers, in[TB1]  response to reports of Web blocking at the start of the ongoing protest movement. Quick on the draw, The Canadian company has already created a new download page for Venezuelans to circumvent the apparent blockage.

Thuggery: The Internet has a lot of enemies

For the first time in the history of the report, Reporters Without Borders labeled three government bodies in democracies as Enemies of the Internet: the US National Security Agency, UK Government Communications Headquarters, and Indian Centre for Development of Telematics. The list also names “usual suspects” such as Syria, Iran, China and Vietnam, as well as newcomers Russia, Pakistan and Ethiopia. Jillian York points out that Turkey, Morocco, and Jordan are curiously absent from the list — Global Voices authors noted that Algeria, Bangladesh, Venezuela and several other countries known for online censorship and blogger oppression were also omitted from the roster.

Syrian activist and Global Voices author Marcell Shehwaro was detained for several hours on March 17 in Aleppo, along with friend and fellow activist Mohammad Khalili. The two were working with a group to hang photographs of slain activists in a public square when the detention took place. Shehwaro reported that authorities took her into custody for not wearing a veil. Both activists were released within hours of the incident.

Zambian journalist Thomas Zgambo, who is currently facing what are likely trumped-up charges for pornography possession, was reportedly beaten by Kazim Sata, son of Zambian President Michael Sata. The reason for the attack is unknown, but Sata’s ruling Patriotic Front tried to charge Zgambo with sedition last year when he was found in possession of information about President Sata. Zgambo is also facing allegations that he is affiliated with the blocked independent news site the Zambian Watchdog, which has become prominent critic of the Sata administration.

Privacy: No safe harbor for you, US

The European Parliament voted in favor of Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding’s proposed data protection reform, which would suspend the EU-US Safe Harbor Principles as well as the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme. The new regulations include higher fines for data protection violations, limitations on citizens’ rights to demand the erasure of their personal data, and limitations on what can be done with EU citizens’ data outside of the EU.

Industry: Still reeling from post-Snowden fallout, Facebook touts privacy values

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a statement calling on the US government to ensure better privacy and security of Internet users. According to Forbes, this statement most likely comes after revelations that the National Security Agency (NSA) programs allowed mass spying on Facebook users, especially those outside the US. According to The Intercept, the NSA has also been using fake Facebook servers in order to infect computers with spyware. Hmm.

Internet Insecurity: Ukrainians hack NATO

Ukrainian hackers claimed responsibility for an attack on NATO websites ahead of a vote in Crimea to secede from the Ukraine. Members of hacktivist group Cyber Berkut protested Western leaders’ contention that the vote was “illegal” by taking down NATO’s primary website and that of its cyber defense center.

Internet Governance: Holding back tears, USG announces decision to relinquish control of DNS

The US government is reportedly ready to give up control over the Internet Domain Name System (DNS) which is managed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a non-profit US-based entity that has coordinated the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions, essentially the Internet’s address book, since 1998 under a contract with the US Department of Commerce. The contract ends in 2015 and as of last week, will not be renewed. ICANN will have to work with global stakeholders, such as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Society (ISOC) and Regional Internet Registries, to make transitional plans. The first international meeting to discuss these issues will be held in Singapore on March 23.

Netizen Activism: The Web turns 25!

The World Wide Web, not to be confused with the Internet, turned 25 last week. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, reminisced about how his invention has revolutionized society since it was originally developed in 1989. Global Voices marked the Web’s birthday with a special GV Face live video hangout featuring GV technical director Jeremy Clarke, Web We Want campaign leaders Renata Avila and Josh Levy, and Alan Emtage, creator of the first Internet search engine.

Activists and allies gathered in Berlin, San Francisco and other cities around the world to honor Bassel Khartabil, a Syrian Web developer and Creative Commons leader who was arrested and imprisoned two years ago this past Saturday. Dutch writer and media expert Monique Doppert, who recently authored a book that tells Khartabil’s story, described her relationship with Bassel in piece for Global Voices Advocacy last week.

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4 comments

  • John Presland

    There’s a major error in the sixth item in this report. The hacking was not carried out by Ukrainians but rather by Russians or pro-Russians acting under their protection. The name of the group, Cyber Berkut, copying that of the ferocious security policy disbanded after Yanukovich’s overthrow but welcomed by the Russians into the Crimea, points to this, and the list of sites that they claim, in Russian, to have blocked, most of them Ukrainian official or private sites, confirms it.

    • Andrey Tselikov

      I do not see an error here. “CyberBerkut” definitely appears to claim to be internal Ukrainian hackers. Your comment is odd because it presupposes there is currently no internal opposition in Ukraine to the new government. These hacktivists don’t hide the fact that they are hostile to this government. Calling pro-Russian Ukrainians “pro-Russians” or “not Ukrainians” also seems a bit disingenuous. As you are probably aware there is a sizable minority of Russian speakers in Ukraine. One might argue whether CyberBerkut is a legitimately Ukrainian group, or Russian nationals masquerading as Ukrainians, but these are anonymous internet hackers – one can report their claims, or just ignore them wholesale. After all, there likely won’t ever be any actual proof either way.

  • John Presland

    Berkut is the name of Yanukovych’s now-disbanded security police, who made a name for themselves through their brutality in dealing with EuroMaidan demonstrators. After Yanukovych’s overthrow they were given refuge in Russia and by the pro-Russian authorities of Crimea. To name one’s group after them makes one’s affiliations clear.

    As I noted, almost all of the sites that CyberBerkut claims to have blocked are Ukrainian sites, associated to one degree or another with the policies of EuroMajdan and the present Kyiv government. As AIN reports:
    http://ain.ua/2014/03/19/516603

    Пророссийские хаккеры “КиберБеркут” уже вторую неделю атакуют украинские сайты и телефоны политиков.
    19 марта 2014
    Антиправительственная организация “КиберБеркут” за последние несколько дней осуществила ряд успешных атак на украинские веб-ресурсы. Хакеры временно заблокировали работу информагентства Liga.net и Unian.nat, веб-сайта Андрея Парубия Parubiy.org, западного портала zik.com.ua
    и ряда других ресурсов.На днях они взломали почтовые ящики региональных отделений партий “Удар” и “Батьковщина” и произвели ряд атак на телефоны украинских политиков и вербовщиков Национальной Гвардии.

    It is hard to see any difference between the contents of the CyberBerkut website and the propaganda coming out of Moscow. So it is reasonable, like AIN, whose article is quoted on CyberBerkut’s own site, to use the term “pro-Russian” as a short descriptor of their views.

    Your phrases “Ukrainians hack NATO” and “Ukrainian hackers claimed responsibility for an attack on NATO websites” will have been read by those less well-informed than us as meaning that people associated with the government were responsible. If you had written “anti-Kyiv dissident Ukrainian(s)” the effect would have been different. You surely wouldn’t argue that “Americans attack Iraq” would be an appropriate headline for a report that a small group of vicious opponents of the Washington government have attacked Iraq.

    I think, incidentally that Ukraine is well rid of Crimea and suggested, prior to Putin’s action, that the first act of the new government should be to shoot his fox by giving Crimea back to Russia before he set his hounds on it. Ukraine now benefits from the loss of a bloc of solidly anti-Ukrainian voters, which will permit the dividing line in Ukrainian politics to move from the national question, on which those who are pro-independence and pro-European now have a secure majority, to matters of economic and social policy. Kyiv’s Crimean policy should now be to insist bilaterally and through multilateral forums for protection of minority – primarily Tatar and Ukrainian – rights in Crimea.

    – – – – – – – – – – –

    I am, of course, aware that there are a sizeable minority number of Russian speakers in Ukraine. I know several, all of whom, including those that speak no Ukrainian, insist that they are Ukrainian and not Russian. All of them are on the side of EuroMajdan and against Berkut.

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