BBC points Russians to the Tor version of itself
- Reference: 1646407810
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/03/04/russia_splinternet_tor_rumours/
- Source link:
This morning the British state broadcaster declared it had been blocked from inside Russia, using also-blocked Twitter to spread the news among Westerners, and signposted web users to a long-forgotten Tor mirror of itself. The BBC [1]launched two new shortwave frequencies in the region earlier this week to broadcast four hours of World Service English news a day. These frequencies can be received clearly in Kyiv and parts of Russia.
The Beeb is not alone; other Western news outlets including Germany's [2]Deutsche Welle , [3]Voice of America , US-sponsored [4]Radio Free Europe and others have also been blocked.
[5]
Although the Reuters financial newswire [6]cited an order of Roskomnadzor, the Russian equivalent of Britain's Ofcom media regulator, the Roskomnadzor [7]blocked site checker returned no information about BBC.com when checked by The Register at the time of writing.
[8]
[9]
El Reg 's own connectivity tests, as well as those of informed sources, suggested that the block had genuinely been implemented, however.
A Russian government spokesman told [10]Reuters : "Access has been restricted to a host of information resources owned by foreigners."
[11]
Roskomnadzor's "news" page is full of demands for mainly US-owned social media sites to stop blocking Russian news and disinformation agencies such as Russia Today (RT).
Yesterday the agency also [12]complained that YouTube ads intended "to misinform the Russian internet audience" were not "age-labelled," something that apparently breaks local Russian law. (Russia's main reason for blocking Western news websites is because President Vladimir Putin doesn't want his population knowing that he's started a war in their name.)
Russian parliament waves through powers for internet iron curtain [13]READ MORE
Hosted at [14]https://www.bbcnewsd73hkzno2ini43t4gblxvycyac5aw4gnv7t2rccijh7745uqd.onion/ , the BBC's block-busting Tor domain appears to be a straight copy of the BBC.com homepage. The site was set up in 2019; the domain at the link above will only work with the Tor browser.
Similarly, the BBC press office urged netizens to spread the word about Tor and open source VPN Psiphon.
Advice on accessing BBC News [15]pic.twitter.com/QXrjljM5sJ — BBC Press Office (@bbcpress) [16]March 4, 2022
Russia's response to this open censorship avoidance call, if any, will be instructive. Although the BBC's Tor mirror of its clearnet operation had largely been forgotten by the wider world since its launch, this is the precise use-case that Tor's creators envisaged: keeping information flowing in spite of state censorship efforts.
While the Beeb coyly labelled its site as being on the "deep web", it is in fact on what the state broadcaster has previously called the "dark web" – that is, the same "dark web" used by Russia-aligned ransomware gangs and similar online criminals to host their leak blogs.
[17]Big Tech's private networks and protocols threaten the 'net, say internet registries
[18]Welcome to the splinternet – where freedom of expression is suppressed and repressed, and Big Brother is watching
[19]It's time you were T0RTT a lesson: Here's how you could build a better Tor, say boffins
[20]Tor loses a node in Russia after activist's arrest in Moscow
Tor is designed to frustrate censorship by bouncing user traffic through a number of relay nodes, disguising its true origins and destinations. Should the Russians try and shut down Western Tor-hosted websites, they're likely to fail – but previous efforts to [21]arrest local exit node operators have borne some fruit.
Tor exit relays have long been a target, not only for [22]law enforcement agencies in the West as well as authoritarian countries, but also those who would [23]log and track exit node users – and, inevitably, [24]cryptocurrency scammers .
Digital balkanisation
As for Russia's wider internet blocking ambitions, while concrete facts are hard to come by, Russia and similarly-minded authoritarian countries have been quietly building so-called splinternets – local firewalled versions of the internet – for years. Also labelled "digital Balkanisation", Russia's version is known as Runet. Work started on Runet in 2014, culminating in a [25]full-scale test in 2019 .
Ivan to be left alone: Russia preps to turn its internet into an intranet if West opens cyber-fire [26]READ MORE
The Runet project is being overseen by Natalya Kasperskaya – cofounder of the antivirus company that bears her married name, as well as ex-wife of its CEO Eugene. The idea behind Runet is that internet-dependent services in Russia can continue functioning while non-Russian resources are blocked altogether. So far there is conflicting evidence about whether the Runet switch has been thrown – tests carried out this morning by El Reg showed landing pages for the Google Play Store and Apple Store were both accessible, while mil-dot-ru (the Russian Ministry of Defence) was inaccessible from an unfiltered internet connection in London.
If Russia does enable Runet, not only will its population immediately notice loss of connectivity with Western-hosted services, they will also have to turn to Tor – a modern form of samizdat – for reliable news and information. At which point it might not only be the BBC deploying Tor mirrors of news websites. ®
Get our [27]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2022/millions-of-russians-turn-to-bbc-news
[2] https://www.dw.com/en/dw-website-blocked-in-russia-letter-from-director-general-to-users/a-61011476
[3] https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/russia-restricts-access-bbc-russian-service-radio-liberty-ria-2022-03-04/
[4] https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-rferl-bbc-facebook-google-twitter-blocked/31735597.html
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YiJFvjjmeRoCanWS6CO9ogAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/russia-restricts-access-bbc-russian-service-radio-liberty-ria-2022-03-04/
[7] https://eais.rkn.gov.ru/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YiJFvjjmeRoCanWS6CO9ogAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YiJFvjjmeRoCanWS6CO9ogAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/russia-restricts-access-bbc-russian-service-radio-liberty-ria-2022-03-04/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YiJFvjjmeRoCanWS6CO9ogAAAIk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://rkn.gov.ru/news/rsoc/news74140.htm
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2019/04/12/russian_parliament_votes_for_a_national_internet/
[14] https://www.bbcnewsd73hkzno2ini43t4gblxvycyac5aw4gnv7t2rccijh7745uqd.onion/
[15] https://t.co/QXrjljM5sJ
[16] https://twitter.com/bbcpress/status/1499723479238823939?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/09/study_on_the_internets_technical_success_factors/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/04/welcome_to_the_splinternet/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/12/tortt_research_paper/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2017/04/13/tor_loses_a_node_in_russia_after_activists_arrest_in_moscow/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2017/04/13/tor_loses_a_node_in_russia_after_activists_arrest_in_moscow/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2015/09/10/tor_library_unplugged/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2017/08/25/brazilians_waxed_for_slurping_tor_addresses/
[24] https://www.theregister.com/2020/08/12/tor_exit_nodes/
[25] https://www.theregister.com/2019/02/12/russia_disconnect_internet_intranet/
[26] https://www.theregister.com/2019/02/12/russia_disconnect_internet_intranet/
[27] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Ironic
Ironic, eh? The world was split on the question as to whether or not to de-domain Russia, yet here they are doing (some) of it to themselves. At their [governmental] convenience, of course.
"Modern" governments, please take note as to why Tor, anonymity and E2E are "good".
So next time you deploy that "save the children" bullshite, just remember how fscky a nation can turn over night. Us civilians have to protect ourselves from you when you turn.
Depends whether the "Modern" governments are more worried about being in the position of Russia or Ukraine.
Re: governments
"Depends whether the "Modern" governments are more worried about being in the position of Russia or Ukraine."
DING DING DING! WE HAVE A WINNER!
Governments around the world are worried about being the former; needing to control the debate is always high on our "elected officials" daily agendas.
encryption and anonymization are necessary to ensure that people remain free, particularly free of draconian surveillance and "fishing expeditions", or worse, "social credit scores" and political cancel culture. And, "modern" gummints can be JUST AS EVIL as "old school" or communist ones, In My Bombastic Opinion.
Canadian Truckers, do you know what I mean?
I think pretti patel downvoted you.
.ru
My reverse proxy recorded an inbound from a supposed bank with a .ru tld, yesterday.
Don’t know if it was fake or even relevant. Whois was vague, as usual, and I didn’t go to the target to find out.
The nuke power station attack was not accidental
Do you imagine that the missile attack on the largest nuclear power station in Europe, near the western border in Ukraine was somehow accidental?
Putin hoped to explode the reactor and spread its contents across Europe. The wind was heading towards Romania, Poland, Germany and Netherlands. NATO would do nothing, clearly, and he would establish that he can attack Europe with 'near'-nuclear weapons without any response from NATO.
I think the only thing that stopped him was that high pressure zone over Russia, the wind started to cycled down and back towards Russia. The wind stopped him, at least for now, it certainly wasn't NATO.
So now he has the staff at that plant at gun point, and we're waiting for the wind to turn again before he blows it up again.
NATO, where are you? In a meeting? Making some Powerpoint slides? Where? When Germany is getting plutonium rain, what is the excuse for inaction then?
Re: The nuke power station attack was not accidental
You think Russian command and control is that effective at this point?
Re: The nuke power station attack was not accidental
Did you read the article here on El Reg indicating that the fire has been put out, the plant folks had plenty of warning, there never was any serious issue, and there has been no release of radiation? The Russians probably want to shut the plant down to cause problems for Ukraine (apparantly it supplies 1/4 of their power). The simplest way to do that is to cause enough fuss that the Ukraine authorities shut it down themselves.
They should also publish on I2P
There is more than just Tor out there.
And I2P has a name-translation service to the base64 website name, from human-friendly.
geti2p.net
I2P buries actual traffic inside a varying set of encrypted and random background streams. So it's not for folk with bandwidth-capped mobiles.