Week-ending 24 December 2021
“The Russian government is using its growing technological capacity to engage in nontransparent, unlawful, and extrajudicial restriction of digital rights in Russia. This past year’s dramatic crackdown on internet freedoms is the culmination of many years’ efforts by the authorities to restrict the rights and freedoms of Russians online. […] Russian authorities claim that they’re working to safeguard the interests of Russian internet users. Instead, relying on their growing arsenal of internet censorship, they are rapidly turning the internet in Russia into a zone of repression. The government should respect digital rights instead of undermining them.”
Anastasiia Kruope, assistant Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Source:
Human Rights Watch: Russian, 24 December 2021 authorities redoubled their efforts in 2021 to repress internet freedoms, Human Rights Watch said today. The government blocked popular censorship circumvention tools, experimented with novel censorship technologies, expanded oppressive internet legislation, and pressured tech companies to comply with the increasingly stifling regulations. “The Russian government is using its growing technological capacity to engage in nontransparent, unlawful, and extrajudicial restriction of digital rights in Russia,” said Anastasiia Kruope, assistant Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “This past year’s dramatic crackdown on internet freedoms is the culmination of many years’ efforts by the authorities to restrict the rights and freedoms of Russians online.”
