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Study: Russia's Web-censoring Tool Sets Pace for Imitators

Associated Press

   WASHINGTON - Russia is succeeding in imposing a highly effective
   internet censorship regime across thousands of disparate, privately
   owned providers in an effort also aimed at making government snooping
   pervasive, according to a study released Wednesday.

   The study by University of Michigan researchers says the model can be
   easily exported to other nations, and it challenges the notion that
   decentralized internet service can prevent large-scale censorship of
   the types imposed by Iran and China.

   "What this study shows is that Russia has created a blueprint for
   censoring the internet on top of a network of internet service
   providers that is very much like the networks found in Western
   democracies," said J. Alex Halderman, a leading computer scientist at
   the university who was not involved in the study. "As other governments
   decide to crack down on the free flow of information online, they may
   follow Russia's game plan."

   Seven years of data used by researchers

   Seven years of publicly available data reviewed by the researchers, who
   call their lab Censored Planet, attests to the Russian government's
   increasing success at getting privately owned internet providers to
   block online addresses used by critics of President Vladimir Putin and
   independent news outlets.

   Previously, Censored Planet's discovery of efforts by Kazakhstan's
   government to surveil internet traffic led Mozilla, Apple and Google to
   add protections to their browsers. Its latest study comes as a new
   Russian law formalizes Kremlin censorship and seeks to further tighten
   information control.

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