Comment by grishka
9 days ago
This is how it worked out in Russia. First, around 10 years ago, they adopted very limited laws that required ISPs to block websites. Things like drugs and suicide, with the classic rationale "won't someone please think of the children". Then piracy websites were added to that. Fast forward to now, ISPs were mandated to install black-box "ТСПУ" devices on their networks, "to protect against threats", so now Roskomnadzor doesn't even pretend to care about the law. Half the internet is broken. More if you're on mobile data. Everyone knows what a VPN is. I personally have set up DPI bypass tools for many of my relatives.
In other words, if you censor enough of the internet that your population knows ways around that, your censorship simply ceases being effective.
At least in Russia and in china, the governments don't pretend that what they are doing is to save the children(TM) whereas in the west we like to drape our authoritarian tendencies under such false pretenses.
In Russia, access to websites was restricted initially "to prevent the spread of information that might harm children", it's in the names of the first censorship laws.
Did you miss there part where OP said that was how it started in Russia? The same is happening in the west.
> Then piracy websites were added to that.
Really? I thought it was de facto no care for piracy from the gov side. Maybe that is just how it looks from the outside.
The government does care somewhat and does some token gestures, at least because Russia is a WTO member. The people mostly don't care.
I think the UK govt is a bit more chilled about it all than Putin.
But it sounds like it's been a progression in the same direction for both nations, so you could say something like
Britain 2025 == Russia 20??
(and not just for those 2)