#digitalresistance
Important information
Currently Russian government is trying to establish new level of censorship, by blocking popular Telegram messenger. Also many unrelated resources (including some google and amazon services!) were blocked in attempt to stop people using Telegram. As result - users starts to create private VPN tunnels on the popular hosting platforms, using their affordable VPS offerings.
However, it was found that Mail.ru Group helps russian government to detect and block such endpoints. Mail.Ru controls and operates the 3 largest and most popular Russian social networking sites, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and Moi Mir, respectively. They are also running gmail-like free email portal.
Recently we got a number of reports that such private VPN proxies were blocked by hosters and included to the list of the government running blocklist. It was unclear how censors were able to detect them?
Thats easy. Mail ru group also operating own Internet search engine. Recently we found many scanning attempts from the Mail.ru Group operated networks, e.g. from 128.140.175.98. During scanning Telegram-related resources were requested and right after that resource been banned. That was confirmed by a number of users already.
What can be done:
1. Do not use any Mail.ru Group services. Avoid their adv. platforms, remove their tracking pixels from your pages.
2. Delete all your accounts in Mail.ru group operated services. It is good to remind that these services are very pro-actively sharing any content with government services and are not respecting user privacy.
3. If you are running own vpn/proxy - block access from the all Mail.ru networks, e.g. 128.140.168.0/21
4. Avoid any cooperation or community events with Mail.ru technical specialists due to their illegal cooperation with censors.
5. Try to share this information with your friends and colleagues. It is important to share that that this group is acting against Internet freedom.
#maxrepost
Important information
Currently Russian government is trying to establish new level of censorship, by blocking popular Telegram messenger. Also many unrelated resources (including some google and amazon services!) were blocked in attempt to stop people using Telegram. As result - users starts to create private VPN tunnels on the popular hosting platforms, using their affordable VPS offerings.
However, it was found that Mail.ru Group helps russian government to detect and block such endpoints. Mail.Ru controls and operates the 3 largest and most popular Russian social networking sites, VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, and Moi Mir, respectively. They are also running gmail-like free email portal.
Recently we got a number of reports that such private VPN proxies were blocked by hosters and included to the list of the government running blocklist. It was unclear how censors were able to detect them?
Thats easy. Mail ru group also operating own Internet search engine. Recently we found many scanning attempts from the Mail.ru Group operated networks, e.g. from 128.140.175.98. During scanning Telegram-related resources were requested and right after that resource been banned. That was confirmed by a number of users already.
What can be done:
1. Do not use any Mail.ru Group services. Avoid their adv. platforms, remove their tracking pixels from your pages.
2. Delete all your accounts in Mail.ru group operated services. It is good to remind that these services are very pro-actively sharing any content with government services and are not respecting user privacy.
3. If you are running own vpn/proxy - block access from the all Mail.ru networks, e.g. 128.140.168.0/21
4. Avoid any cooperation or community events with Mail.ru technical specialists due to their illegal cooperation with censors.
5. Try to share this information with your friends and colleagues. It is important to share that that this group is acting against Internet freedom.
#maxrepost