Earlier this year, China begun assessing ways to ban VPNs and proxy servers in the country, and finally made it mandatory for individuals and organizations to register with the government in order to use such services. Now, Russia seems to be moving towards a similar decision as well.
The bill to ban the use of tools such as proxy websites, proxy servers or virtual private networks (VPNs) in the country was passed by the State Duma (lower house) of the Russian Parliament on Friday. It is yet to be approved by the upper house and the President, but once done, the country's internet service providers will need to block access to any providers of proxy services.
As per Russian lawmakers, the move would further help enforce the country's ban on extremist content hosted online. Currently there is no word on whether any special provisions are available for companies that rely on global content or individuals that need access to such services. We will know more about the bill in the coming weeks.
Source: ABC News | Vladimir Putin image via Shutterstock
vice80 on July 24th, 2017 at 09:30 UTC »
As russian, I'm extremely worried about it. Any lawyer here can say if I'm in any danger, if I still use vpn somehow? Maybe buy some international vpn? What about thor? It's slow as fuck, but might it help me access something I want to see safely?
nyteryder79 on July 24th, 2017 at 05:43 UTC »
Wow, that's insane from an IT standpoint. That will totally screw up businesses if they can't tunnel their domains. As a .NET contract developer, I have to use VPNs daily to get on a customer's domain so that I can access their resources, like TFS, etc. If VPNs were outlawed, I have no idea how I'd be able to work. All the SAP developers and consultants would pretty much be screwed as well since I've never worked on anything with SAP without having to connect to a VPN first.
LazzzyButtons on July 24th, 2017 at 05:25 UTC »
That's what dictators do.
Dictators control the media, and when that media gets out of line they are called "extreme" if they disagree with those in power.