Russia Clamps Down On Bloggers, Online Profanity

[Signa]

Scumbag Russia. Cracks down on the internet, but doesn't address scammers or frauds that the country is becoming known for.

 

[Vicarious Reality]

Real good spending of tax money right there
How long are politicians allowed to serve in russia?

 

[Rawbeard]

Took him long enough to apply his KGB expertise to the interwebs. Good job, Vlad. USA, take notes, you need to stamp out your new media fast and this is how it's done.

 

[Vegosiux]

Real good spending of tax money right there
How long are politicians allowed to serve in russia?

The president can serve 2 consecutive terms, then has to take a break for 1 cooldown term (but can hold a different position), can then run for president again and can again serve 2 consecutive terms. And then has to take a break again. Rinse and repeat.

 

[CriticalMiss]

i have a feeling next week we are going to be looking at some news regarding putin invading afganistan to sort out some "unfinished business"

No no no. He'll just be going there to protect Russian speaking individuals whilst they call for a referendum and if any trouble kicks off the army, who by total coincidence are performing drills on the border, swoop in to save the day.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

Did Putin go ahead and rebuilt the Berlin Wall when nobody was looking? Because I've got the feeling that Putin really wants the Soviet Union back.

No, he's just sad that he no longer gets the 'privileges' he had when he was back in the KGB. Back then they could make any outrageous decision they wanted to, and the populace wasn't allowed to complain, lest they wanted to be imprisoned. These are classic KGB tactics.

Most of the government in Russia, and a bunch of other former Eastern Bloc countries have the same problem with corruption in the state, since a lot of them just jumped ship when they saw that the communist party was sinking quickly in the 90s.

So now, they are trying to 're-capture the glory days' in excercising power and whatnot, and silencing the opposition.

 

[Vegosiux]

i have a feeling next week we are going to be looking at some news regarding putin invading afganistan to sort out some "unfinished business"

No no no. He'll just be going there to protect Russian speaking individuals whilst they call for a referendum and if any trouble kicks off the army, who by total coincidence are performing drills on the border, swoop in to save the day.

Afghanistan's a dump. If USA and Russia went to war over it, I suspect it'd likely be over "No no, you can have it, and if you don't take it, I'll make you take it". Then again, Russia does seem to have cores all over the place so who knows...it's only certain they wouldn't try to pull this with Alaska, because, according to Putin, that place's just too damn cold.

Right, maybe I shouldn't be joking about this, but it makes geopolitics a helluvalot less depressing >.>

 

[Major_Tom]

At some point Stalin will rise from the grave and suka-slap Putin for out-Stalin Stalin.

 

[Colt47]

Great, so another possible catalyst for a third World War is now rising over there. Not that we will be around for a fourth one, but still.

 

[fenrizz]

Did Putin go ahead and rebuilt the Berlin Wall when nobody was looking? Because I've got the feeling that Putin really wants the Soviet Union back.

Who doesn't?

Here we see a country walking backwards from evolving with the world around it. And then there's the Ukraine thing. Oh boy... Putin, what are ya doing, man?

Crimea is basically Russian anyway, so I don't really see the problem with them wanting it back to be honest.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

-snip-

Has to be the most sensible post in the thread. My hat's off to you, sir.

As for my opinion on the matter? It's less about cracking down on bloggers, more about just making it official. I mean, this kind of shit's been going on over there already, not like Putin "needs" such a law.

But seriously, he's been spending so many admin points lately that he might find himself short of them once his revolt risk goes up and he needs to boost stability.

Thank you, and I enjoyed the EU4 reference in your post. Now I'm picturing black bars all the way across the map of Ukraine...

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

It's a shitty time for the Internet. First the FCC wants Internet fast lanes so our information can be controlled by the rich and our ISP's can keep our infrastructure in the stone age, and now Russia wants wants to stamp out truth that conflicts with its government and and make the Internet "less profane". It'll be interesting to see what "profanity" is added to their word filters

 

[Andy Chalk]

The answer is not empowering a government agency to monitor everyone's communication, I agree. But the present solution of leaving it to be resolved within public debate and the courts is not working. A possible solution would be giving a government agency the ability to take restrictive measures if complaints from the public are upheld, but every time that gets proposed, we get "Stalinism" and "Orwellian" rammed down our ears before anyone can even discuss how it would operate.

How is it not working? Those of us in the Western world have freedom of press and access to information that's unprecedented in human history. We are the envy of the world. Yes, it's an imperfect system, and yes, we face constant efforts to suppress and curtail those freedoms by shadowy government agencies (although nothing like in other parts of the world) and yes, shitty things are said sometimes and we often can't do anything about it. But name any nation that does it better. The United States enshrined the right to speech unimpeded by government in its constitution, and for all that country's foibles and troubles and crazy-ass bullshit, I am endlessly thankful that it did. I'll take a troubled system like ours (which, for the record, relies very heavily on theirs) over the intimidation and suffocation seen in countries like Russia any day of the year.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

How is it not working?

Look ye no further than the global paralysis when it comes to climate change. An overwhelming scientific consensus that most people are generally ignorant about because a large section of the Western media regularly misrepresents and distorts their findings because it's in their financial interest to preserve the status quo.

Those of us in the Western world have freedom of press and access to information that's unprecedented in human history.

The latter is part of the problem. There's in fact so much information that people who don't have the time or training to synthesise it and sort the signal from the noise will be persuaded to listen to arguments based on factors other than the strength of their evidence: appeal to emotion, appeal to authority etc. It becomes possible to repeat a lie so often enough that enough people become convinced it's the truth because in their self-imposed limited circle of knowledge they never find out otherwise.

We are the envy of the world. Yes, it's an imperfect system, and yes, we face constant efforts to suppress and curtail those freedoms by shadowy government agencies (although nothing like in other parts of the world) and yes, shitty things are said sometimes and we often can't do anything about it. But name any nation that does it better.

Again, why automatically take it to extremes? Why can't we simultaneously be thankful, as I am, that we don't live in a country with severe restrictions on speech and information; and also point to elements of our own system that can be improved?

Also, since you ask, I'd say Finland is a good example: http://inforrm.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/freedom-of-the-press-and-statutory-regulation-lessons-from-finland/

The United States enshrined the right to speech unimpeded by government in its constitution, and for all that country's foibles and troubles and crazy-ass bullshit, I am endlessly thankful that it did. I'll take a troubled system like ours (which, for the record, relies very heavily on theirs) over the intimidation and suffocation seen in countries like Russia any day of the year.

Constitutionally enshrined freedom of speech is a double edged sword if it also creates an environment where speech can become largely free of consequence. That's one of the downsides of the US system: it basically relies on self-correction and that frequently doesn't happen. Again, this doesn't have to be a case of "It's either the USA or Russia." There's room to improve both models (truckloads more in Russia though, hah!).