Thousands protest Russia’s ‘internet isolation’

Thousands of people rallied against Russia’s increasingly restrictive internet policies yesterday which critics say will eventually lead to “total censorship” and isolate the country from the world. The rally in Moscow and smaller events in other cities was called after the Russian lower house of parliament backed a bill to stop Russian internet traffic from being routed on foreign servers, in a bid to boost cybersecurity.

Critics say this is the latest attempt to control online content under President Vladimir Putin, with some fearing the country is on track to completely isolate its network, as in North Korea. “We are here because anonymity is being liquidated in Russia,” said 23-year-old student Nikita Ushakov. “Authorities are adopting laws that permit them to put people in jail for no reason, block online resources, block access to information,” he said.

Activists said more than 15,000 people had turned up to listen to internet and media rights campaigners as well as to musicians, who have complained of government pressure in recent months. “The government is battling freedom, including freedom on the internet,” said one speaker, Sergei Boiko, an internet activist from Siberia.

“I can tell you this as somebody who spent a month in jail for a tweet,” he added. “You need darkness to steal and kill, in all other cases you need light. In our day, light is the internet,” said protester Viktor Tinovitsky, a 61-yearold engineer.