Just yesterday, on Sunday, March 10, 2019, thousands of Russian citizens banded together to protest against the Russian Federation’s tightening of restrictions on Internet use.
The protestors were split between three cities: Moscow, Khabarovsk, and Voronezh. Authorities in each of the three cities had approved the protests prior to their execution. An unknown number of activists protested in the city of St. Petersburg, as well, though they didn’t first receive a heads-up from the Russian government.
According to White Counter, a non-governmental organization that is known for objectively, fairly determining the number of people in crowds at political rallies and protests, there were some 15,300 people split across the three locations in which Russian nationals protested.
Law enforcement officials in Moscow alleged that there were roughly 6,500 people there at the protest yesterday, though this figure is likely less accurate than the one reported by White Counter.
According to the assertions of Russian lawmakers, the government wants to beef up its controls on its citizens’ use of the World Wide Web so that foreign computer users can’t force their way into the Internet infrastructure of Russia, effectively cutting down on the likelihood of other countries messing with affairs throughout the country.
However, media sources in Russia, as well as the 15,000-plus people who showed up for the protests, indicated that the proposed Internet controls are akin to an “iron curtain,” a dark and dreary allusion to the Soviet Union’s maintenance of the iron curtain, an intangible force that prevented communications, goods, cultural information, and more from seeping its way into what’s now known as the Russian Federation.
Further, critics of the proposed restrictions have acknowledged that the restrictions can be manipulated to block out web users who have dissenting opinions, effectively harming Russian people’s right to speak freely.
According to activists, roughly 15 people who were protesting against the implementation of Internet regulations by the Russian Federation were said to have been held by police until the end of the protests. Law enforcement officers in Moscow have yet to come forward with news of any arrests and detentions, likely indicating that all 15 of the protestors were released soon after their capture.
In the past few years, Russia has taken stabs at cutting back Internet-related freedoms of its people, cutting off access to things like Telegram, a popular messaging service.
The lawmakers’ proposal involves routing all web traffic through hubs controlled by the federal government.
Dil Bole Oberoi
