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COLUMBUS, Ohio The Russian government has persuaded many of its citizens to avoid websites and social media platforms that are critical of the government, a new study has found.

Researchers analyzing a survey of Russian citizens found that those who relied more on Russian national television news perceived the internet as a greater threat to their country than did others. This in turn led to increased support for online political censorship.

Approval of the government of President Vladimir Putin amplified the impact of those threat perceptions on support for censorship, according to the study.

The success of the Russian regime in persuading citizens to self-censor their internet use has troubling implications, said Erik Nisbet, co-author of the study an associate professor of communication at The Ohio State University.

This is actually more insidious. The government doesnt have to rely as much on legal or technical firewalls against content they dont like. They have created a psychological firewall in which people censor themselves, Nisbet said.

People report they dont go to certain websites because the government says it is bad for me.

Nisbet conducted the study with Olga Kamenchuk, a visiting assistant professor, and doctoral student Aysenur Dal, both from Ohio State. Their results appear in the September 2017 issue of the journal Social Science Quarterly.

The researchers used data originally collected by VCIOM (Russian Public Opinion Research Center) for the Internet Policy Observatory at the University of Pennsylvania Annenberg School for Communication.

For that project, researchers surveyed 1,601 Russian citizens during May 2014 about their internet and media use, risk perceptions about the internet, support for online political censorship and support for the Putin government.

Ohio States analysis of the survey responses showed that people who relied most on the official government TV news were more likely than those who used other media sources to see the internet as a threat. These viewers were more likely to agree that the internet was used by foreign countries against Russia and that it was a threat to political stability within the country.

Not surprisingly, those who saw the internet as a threat were also more likely to support online censorship.

Support for Vladimir Putin significantly strengthened the relationship between seeing the internet as a risk and supporting online censorship, the study found.

Government authorities have convinced many Russians that censoring content labeled as extremist protects the population from harm, while at the same time failing to mention that this label is often applied by authorities to legitimate political opposition or opinions that run counter to government policies, Kamenchuk said.

The Russian regime uses its official news outlets, particularly television, to spread fear about anti-government sites. The regime often uses graphic metaphors to sensationalize the risk of some internet content, according to the researchers.

For example, the government has compared some websites it opposes to suicide bombers and tells citizens its response would be to use internet control and censorship to create a bulletproof vest for the Russian society.

Kamenchuk said Russians dont have to rely on these official government news sources.

There is opposition TV, radio and newspapers in the country that are not blocked. People can find them freely. But our studies show that many deliberately choose to ignore those outlets, she said.

Even blocked websites can be accessed through technical solutions that arent difficult to find in the country, even if they are illegal, Nisbet said.

But it is tougher to circumvent that psychological firewall than it is the legal or technological firewalls. How do you circumvent the mindset that censorship is good? he said.

Russia isnt alone in persuading citizens that the internet can be dangerous. Many authoritarian governments, such as Turkey, have labelled opposition websites and social media platforms as a threat, the researchers said.

Despite the importance of self-censorship in countries like Russia, most studies have overlooked the issue, Nisbet said.

Much of the academic research on the subject comes from the United States, where there is a lot of support for free expression and internet freedom, he said. But the U.S. is an exception in this regard, and not the norm. Much of the world is much more supportive of censorship than is the U.S.

These results also mean that the United States needs to adjust how it pursues its goal of increasing internet access and freedom around the world. The U.S. State Department has allocated millions of dollars to promote internet freedom, primarily in the areas of technology for getting around censorship.

Thats not going to help a lot if people agree with the censorship and dont want to use these tools, Nisbet said.

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Why many Russians have gladly agreed to online censorship | The ... - The Ohio State University News

XIAMEN, China (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that there was no censorship or official pressure behind the arrest of a film and theater director whose edgy work has angered traditionalists in the Russian establishment.

Russian prosecutors say they suspect the director, Kirill Serebrennikov, of embezzling at least 68 million rubles ($1.17 million) in state funds earmarked for an art project. Serebrennikov, under house arrest awaiting trial, denies the charges.

The case has prompted an outcry among the countrys liberal cultural elite who said they feared the director was being persecuted for his work, which has often poked fun at the authorities.

Putin, in his first public comments after Serebrennikovs arrest, denied any political overtones in his case.

Serebrennikov used to receive state funds - this means there was no censorship, no pressure, he told a news conference after a summit of the BRICS nations in China.

Otherwise, he would simply have not been given state funds, if there had been intentions to rein in his creative activity.

Putin said that there were differing attitudes to Serebrennikovs work, but said it was just a matter of taste.

If authorities earmark funds, it means that at least they view it from a neutral position and allow the artist to perform, to work, he said.

The only question for the investigation is the legality of spending budget funds, he added. Should investigative and auditing bodies see someone violating the law in force, the same methods will be applied to them. And they will also be brought to justice.

Reporting by Denis Pinchuk; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Christian Lowe

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Putin: no censorship or pressure behind arrest of prominent director - Reuters

UK view: The PC Myth Harvey Obliterated

The heroism shown by ordinary Texans after Hurricane Harvey is a great antidote to the prejudices expressed by well-off liberals towards deplorable Americans, notes Sean Collins at the British site Spiked. While the politically correct view depicts the nation divided by race, the scenes from Houston told a different story a black officer wading through floodwaters with a white child in each arm, a SWAT officer saving a Vietnamese woman and her baby and three Asian and Hispanic constables moving an elderly woman in a wheelchair. Unlike PC liberals, Collins adds, most people dont see life through a racial prism. In response to Harvey, we didnt see the diversity of essentially different people we saw citizens helping citizens, Texans helping Texans.

Tech report: Beware of Googles Enormous Power

The story of the New America Foundation firing staff for criticizing Google, a major funder of the think tank, sounded familiar, writes Kashir Hill at Gizmodo. Six years ago, while working at Forbes, she was pressured to unpublish a critical piece about Googles monopolistic practices after the company got upset about it. And that article stayed unpublished. Even more disturbing is that soon after, search results stopped showing the piece at all. Scraped versions could still be found, but the traces of my original story vanished. Hill admits she doesnt have hard evidence proving Google manipulated results an almost dystopian abuse of its power. But the story Google didnt want people to read swiftly became impossible to find through Google.

Political scribe: GOP Needs Bogeyman for Midterms

Like most politics of recent years, warns Michelle Cottle at The Atlantic, next years midterm elections promise to be wild and weird, since its increasingly looking like whichever team more furiously fires up its base will come out on top. Democrats have it easy: Aim squarely at President Trump. But for Republicans, coming up with a suitably electrifying bogeyman could prove challenging. And with no obvious Democratic stars to target, Republicans are left focusing mostly on tired standbys. Theres one obvious target: the prospect of Nancy Pelosi becoming speaker once again. Her unpopularity in key districts is the gift that never stops giving. And while Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may be history ... the GOP bases hatred for them is still red-hot.

Activist: Imprisoned for Wanting a Free Venezuela

Writing for The New York Times from a prison cell in the dungeons of the Venezuelan secret police, Yon Goicoechea offers a dramatic first-hand account of what Venezuelans, particularly dissenters like him, suffer under the regime. As he was set to speak at a Popular Will party news conference a year ago, he was taken by armed guards and locked in a cell without light or natural ventilation. Worm-infested food and scraps of clothing covered in feces lay on the floor. It felt as if I had been buried alive. Such is the punishment for many Venezuelans who dare to dream of a democratic society, free of Communism and open to the global community. All they want is free elections, good governance, free expression, judicial independence, personal security and a modicum of economic liberty that is, what so many other people around the world take for granted.

Economist: Tax Reform Conservatives Can Back

As Washington gets set for tax reform, economics prof Aaron Hedlund at National Review suggests Republicans avoid playing small ball and seize the opportunity to craft bold tax reform that tilts the balance of power back from D.C. to the American people. He lays out several principles: limit spending, aim for simplicity, insist on permanence rather than temporary patches and gimmickry. Republicans must also take the social-justice fight to the Democrats. They should point out that liberals obsession with using the tax code for social engineering and redistribution is responsible for the very favoritism that currently exists in the tax code: big business over small business, cohabiting couples over married couples, and so on. The GOP can provide an alternative by pushing for a level playing field.

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The PC myth Harvey destroyed, Google censorship, the 2018 boogeymen & other comments - New York Post

The Cuban government has blocked internet content deemed critical of the revolution from reaching users on the island for years, but apparently its censorship methods are not that sophisticated, according to a report by the Open Observatory of Network Interference (OONI), an organization linked to the open network and free software, Tor.

After analyzing access to more than 1,400 websites in three Cuban cities between late May and early June, three OONI members who traveled to the island found that at least 41 are blocked, mostly news sites and websites of Cuban opposition organizations or human rights NGOs.

The main conclusion of this study is that Cuba's ISP [Internet Service Provider, in this case ETECSA] appears to mainly censor sites that express criticism (directly or indirectly) toward the Cuban government, explained Mara Xynou, one of the authors of the study. However, internet censorship in Cuba does not appear to be particularly sophisticated compared to other countries with more advanced censorship, such as China or Iran.

The OONI team concluded that censorship is done using a method known as deep packet inspection (DPI), which allows filtering of data when passing through an inspection point.

Only versions of sites that use the HTPP and not its secure version, the HTPPS are blocked, potentially allowing users to bypass censorship by simply accessing secure versions of sites, the report indicates.

Furthermore, while some sites that express political criticism were found to be blocked, many other international sites which arguably express more criticism were found to be accessible. This might indicate a lack in sophistication in both internet surveillance and censorship implemented in the country, said Xynou.

However, this could be a calculated strategy on the part of the Cuban government.

It seems to us that countries make budget-influenced decisions when implementing censorship: generally, the objective is to discourage most people from accessing specific resources at a reasonable cost, she added.

In the case of Cuba, the state telecommunications monopoly, ETECSA, controls internet access, which is expensive and limited although the company has pledged to expand connectivity.

An hour of internet browsing costs $1.50 in a country where the average monthly salary is about $30. According to the most recent official statistics, about four million users have access to the internet but most of them navigate through a government-controlled intranet. Cuban authorities do not define what they consider a user either. Across the country, there are only 370 public places with WiFi service. Home service has not yet been implemented on the island.

Given the high cost of accessing the internet, rendering it inaccessible to most Cubans, perhaps the Cuban government doesn't even need to invest in sophisticated internet censorship (yet). Furthermore, the political climate of the country appears to foster self-censorship, which arguably is the most effective form of censorship, Xynou said.

Since its launched in 2012, OONI has been mapping global censorship on the internet in an effort to increase transparency. The organization has developed free software to examine a network and gather information to determine who censors and how its done.

With this technology, the OONI team also verified that in Cuba censorship is carried out in a way that is not clear to the user. The user cant tell if the site or service is blocked, or whether there is just a bad connection. This is the case with Skype, which is blocked on the island through a method known as packet injection, a technique that has been used in countries such as China and prevents users from realizing if the service is intentionally blocked or not.

Although ETECSA uses the technology of the Chinese firm Huawei, the report authors could not determine if the same technology is used to censor.

Our analysis of the Cuban internet was limited to what we could observe publicly, at the network level, by sending and receiving data, said Xynou. It would have been much more difficult and also risky, to fully understand the internal implementation of the Cuban censorship apparatus We decided not to go down that route.

Read more here:
Report reveals technical details on internet's censorship in Cuba ... - Miami Herald

Last month, the China Quarterly (CQ), the most reputed academic journal of China studies in the world, published by the Cambridge University Press (CUP), was asked by the Chinese government to block hundreds of articles in China. The censorship was sought with retrospective effect going back to the first issue in 1960. Most of the articles were on Tibet, the Cultural Revolution, Tiananmen Square protests, Taiwan independence, Falun Gong, Xinjiang, democracy and human rights.

This was an unprecedented move of academic censorship in China. It is common practice that foreign scholars excise sensitive information from their work published in Chinese on the mainland. This protects Chinese citizens associated with a particular piece of research and also guards against the possibility of visa denials for subsequent visits by scholars. However, the CQ censoring raised the stakes as this actively targeted the work of China scholars in English published outside China. The academic community reacted swiftly with stinging criticism. It criticised the CUP for its failure to stand up for academic freedom. This backlash worked and within three days the CQ reinstated the banned content in China.

Defending the ban, an editorial in the Global Times, the mouthpiece of the government, termed the ban a matter of principle and asked the West to fall in line with Chinese laws to do business with the vast Chinese market. It also stated that academic freedom is a western value.

CQ has over six decades built a reputation for upholding the highest standards of research on China, with defining conversations on Chinese politics, economy and society. It has created a well-informed discourse on China that is itself open to critique and discussion. This censorship would have prevented Chinese scholars from participating in this conversation. Further, CQ is equally valuable to Chinese and non-Chinese scholars. Its censorship was hardly likely to produce an affirming consensus around the Chinese governments view of its own politics within the Chinese academic community. As an English language journal, its readership in China is limited to the social sciences academics. Therefore, this censorship was not likely to have had a major impact on widespread Chinese efforts to control its popular mediascape. Why, then, did China risk a global political backlash from some of the most well-informed people on China?

It appears that there now is a broad policy of censoring academic debate in China. Following the CQ censorship, Lexis-Nexis, another widely used legal and academic database, revealed that it has been forced to pull two of its databases out of the Chinese market because of censorship. The Journal of Asian Studies, another top journal was also asked to remove content. While censorship is not new in China, its expansion to academic content in English is an alarming sign.

The Chinese panopticon has evolved from party units at the workplace, neighbourhoods, professional organisations, media and academia to the more omnipresent monitoring regime online. China has successfully bent global companies and its own citizens to its will in operationalising its panopticon. The latest casualty in this are the virtual private networks (VPNs) used by Chinese and foreigners on the mainland to access banned content. Apple, the global technology giant, was complicit in this exercise, removing an app last month from its online store that allowed users to access VPNs. While the panopticon has served the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) well, it remains the Achilles heel of the party requiring constant political investment and tight operational control. To deal with this challenge, China is now trying to control the global conversation on the Internet and change the rules of how the Internet functions globally as a discursive space. Chinas articulation of Internet sovereignty is to territorialise cyberspace giving national governments greater control over access and content. This is philosophically opposed to the vision of the Internet as global space built of and building communities over and above territorial borders.

The attempt to censor the CQ is an outcome of this regressive policy. CQ was sought to be censored because it does not conform to the regimes attempts to revise Chinese history, purging it of critical reflection on Chinese politics. Chinese universities and research institutes have always functioned under tight political boundaries. It appears that the government wants to narrow these boundaries further by preventing access to critical material on Chinas contentious politics over race, sovereignty, political citizenship, and elite politics. The upcoming CCP Congress has also contributed to the attempts to sanitise Chinese cyberspace of any politically subversive content. However, even as that may be a catalyst for the CQ ban, the political provenance of the ban resides in the revisionism of Chinese history to bolster the legitimacy of the party.

The reliance on brute force of the market to censor is likely to create an undercurrent of resistance rather than an informed consensus in favour of the CCPs vision. China overplayed its hand here and clearly underestimated the resolve of the China scholars community in standing by their lifes work. The CUPs decision to reinstate its content provides a contrast to the capitulation by global corporations such as Apple, to the lure of the Chinese market. Evidently, it is the university and not the market that will produce a resistance to oppression and stand by what is worthy of a fight for all peoples. Precisely why nationalistic regimes the world over today are trying to turn universities into uncritical factories to churn out loyal foot soldiers of the state.

Sonika Gupta is Associate Professor, IIT-Madras China Studies Centre, Chennai

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Staring down censorship - The Hindu