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The websites of the Comintern (SH) are accessible again in Russia.
In Poland, too, the blockade has been lifted, which lasted from the evening of 17 March until the morning of the next day, as we have learned from the Polish section...
This was not an isolated attack, which only targeted the websites of our party.
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In March 2024, a regulation came into force according to which VPN services that provide access to sites banned in Russia will be blocked by Roskomnadzor on all markets.
As of 1 March, the Russian communications regulator Roskomnadzor has blocked all VPN services that grant users access to resources banned in Russia.
This applies in particular to VPN services that allow users to access products from the US social media company "Meta". These include widespread platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and Whatsapp.
In particular, Roskomnadzor has blocked the associated VPN applications in popular app stores through which users usually download them.
The Russian government is blocking more and more websites, including on 17 March 2024 on the occasion of the Putin election. Shortly before the parliamentary elections, Russia blocked the largest VPN providers. Many Western and "independent" Russian websites were blocked.
Russia is further restricting the use of the internet and has blocked six providers of protected network connections (VPN).
According to a change in the law, all Russian citizens are obliged to go through state-approved verification processes before they are allowed to use any online platform. In this context, hosting providers have also been instructed to register with the state, implement measures against "violations of the law" by their customers and "report the results to the authorities".
With the help of deep packet inspection (DPI), every single message sent is checked for the combination of certain words. If the combination is on the index, the message will not reach the recipient - at least for messages sent to Russia, from Russia or within Russia. Messages that are critical of Putin or Russia, for example, are not forwarded. The list of taboo words that are not permitted is updated very quickly.
According to the Russian censorship authorities, virtual private networks (VPN) promote "illegal activities" such as those of "left-wing extremists", including our party and its Russian section.
VPN tunnels ("Virtual Private Network").
This does not access a website directly, but takes a diversion, usually via another country. This means that the internet provider does not recognise which website is being accessed and does not block access.
Such VPN connections can be used to access blocked websites, for example.
In general, the Internet is usually only partially blocked. Internet providers may then no longer allow connections to the affected services - in times of elections, this often affects social media. This has less of an impact on a country's economy, but the opposition is deprived of the opportunity to communicate quickly.
It is a fact that more and more Russian citizens are resorting to VPN services and information from foreign media.
Because not only the content but also the destination addresses are not visible, state censorship authorities cannot distinguish between authorised and unauthorised websites. But the Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor already blocked the servers of the Tor network a few months ago. However, thanks to Snowflake proxies, people in Russia can continue to use Tor. This is possible thanks to around 25,000 volunteers around the world who have installed a small plugin in their Chrome or Firefox browser.
The firewall does not see the melting snowflake. The censorship authorities are also unable to prevent this because the mostly private internet connections of the volunteers who operate a snowflake proxy change their IP addresses within a few days. Currently, around 100,000 connections are being established from Russia to the uncensored Tor network in this way.
After Iran, the countries with the most Snowflake users are Russia and China.
China.
Currently, Snowflake is available within Tor Browser on desktop and Android, Onion Browser on iOS, and Orbot on Android and iOS. If you have downloaded and installed any of these apps and they are censored in your country, you can bypass the censorship by enabling Snowflake via the apps' settings page.
Anyone who wants to support the system can help by installing the Snowflake plugin. There are no risks for those who provide the connection. It is not possible to recognise from the outside which connections are being opened or forwarded. Even if those who use Snowflake abuse it, this is not traceable. The load on your own Internet connection is also limited.
Overall, Snowflake is therefore a simple and effective way of helping people to access uncensored information on the Internet. It is difficult for censors to block such circumvention tools.
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The Comintern (SH) and its sections use the Tor browser, VPN, encrypted email services, etc. We have also founded "The Red Hacker Front" with its own website etc.
Internet blocking is a favourite means of all bourgeois states to suppress revolutionary forces. But this does not always mean that access to the Internet is no longer possible. Rather, access is usually only restricted and remains monitored.
The Russian class war is also an information and propaganda war not only against the working class in its own country, but against the entire world proletariat, against the socialist revolution in Russia, against the world socialist revolution.
The Comintern (SH) and the Russian section have pledged mutual solidarity. All sections stand united behind the Russian Section in the struggle for freedom of communist agitation and propaganda, for access to the Comintern (SH) websites throughout Russia and the world.
Bypassing bourgeois censorship is a defensive tactic of proletarian agitation and propaganda.
Censoring the censors is a global offensive tactic of the world proletariat.
