Russian opposition protesters protest media censorship

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Russian opposition candidates rallied in Moscow against a law that characterizes some media outlets as foreign agents.

Critics see the label as a form of pressure on the free media in the run-up to the election.

Russia has blocked access to six virtual private networks, including some of the world’s most popular services, as the government stepped up its efforts to curb the Internet.

NordVPN and Express VPN were among the networks blocked because they allowed access to restricted information and resources, communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said in a statement on Friday. These include material that the Russian authorities have considered extremist as well as what the regulator said was information about drugs and child pornography.

Russia has stepped up its efforts to control access to information ahead of this month’s parliamentary elections, with numerous independent media groups seen as foreign agents subject to criminal restrictions and regularly fined on international platforms, including Google and Facebook Inc. of Alphabet Inc. failure to remove content that has been flagged as illegal.

VPNs help bypass Internet traffic restrictions and provide users with anonymity and greater security. Roskomnadzor said it has created a whitelist for software and applications that use VPNs for technical reasons that will be allowed to continue.

Russia already has a long list of blacklisted websites, messaging apps and other digital services, as well as a series of laws that threaten to prosecute bloggers and allow authorities to ban websites without a court order, NordVPN said in a statement. Plans to block VPNs are another move to strengthen government control over online communications.

NordVPN has destroyed its servers in Russia after the government requested access in 2019 and will continue to offer its products through available channels, the statement said. Express VPN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The move comes amid an increasingly harsh crackdown on the opposition that began with the arrest of President Vladimir Putin, the most vocal critic, Alexei Navalny, earlier this year. Since Navalny’s arrest, groups linked to him have been described as extremists and most of his top aides have fled the country amid the threat of prosecution.

The pressure on foreign technology companies has also increased. Twitter Inc. was hit with measures that slowed down loading due to content deletion failure. Roskomnadzor warns Google and Apple Inc. that they can be considered to be interfering in the electoral process if they do not abolish an application initiated by Navalny, state Tass reported this week, citing the guard.

Russia’s technical capabilities have improved since it tried to block the Telegram messaging platform several years ago due to a failure to share encrypted information. He could not enforce the ban and eventually relented. Following a law in 2019, authorities have upgraded systems that they say will allow Russia to be completely cut off from the internet.

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