Russia’s Ministry of Communications has announced that it has successfully tested its own independent internet.
The Russian government has been working on this internet project in a bid to tighten control over internet activity in the region.
Recently, Russia passed its “sovereign internet law” which allows the government to block content during what it terms as “emergency situations.”
This new law took effect in November 2019.
In addition, the law mandates that all phones sold within the country should have pre-installed Russian apps.
Russia’s Ministry of Communications claims that users did not notice any significant changes to their web use while the testing of the new internet was taking place.
Russia joins the growing list of countries seeking to unplug their citizens from the mainstream internet. It joins countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and most significantly, China.
China is the first to mind when the subject of internet restrictions is brought up. It has successfully annexed its citizens from mainstream internet, mainly by providing alternatives to popular services or (Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter etc) on its own internet (such as weChat, Baidu etc).
China also heavily censors content its citizens are allowed to see.
Similarly, Runet – Russia’s internet project, allows Russia’s government to sift through content and filter what Russians can see/access online.
Speaking to the BBC, Professor Alan Woodward, a computer scientist at the University of Surrey, said that “Runet would get ISPs and telcos to configure the internet within their borders as a gigantic intranet, just like a large corporation does.”
In such a scenario, the use of VPN’s to attempt to bypass censorship is futile.
