Ummm byee
So I kind of hate that Putin is trying to restrict the flow of information into Russia so that he can control the narrative, so for my Russian friends, here is my guide on
How to get around internet censorship and maintain internet privacy
This will be an extremely long post š
Priorities
- Download the Tor Browser
- This will hopefully help you access the internet regardless of Russian government bans. Itās a little slow, but better than nothing. It hides your IP address from the internet, so itās kind of like using a VPN. A very basic summary of how Tor works: your internet traffic is routed through severalĀ ānodesā. The Entry Node, can see your IP address but has no idea what data youāre sending, and this goes through several middle nodes, until it reaches the Exit Node. The Exit Node can see what data youāre sending, but it canāt see your IP address so it doesnāt know WHO sent it. Thatās why itās a good idea to do nothing identifying when using the Tor Browser, like writing personal information. Hereās a blog post with more detailed information about the Tor Browser.
- Get a VPN
- VPNs are often used to get around government internet restrictions. Russia will probably not be able to do much about it. However, not all VPNs are created equal. Nearly all of the free VPNs are a scam that turn around and sell your data, so free VPNs are not secure. The only exception to this is ProtonVPN which has a free tier, but itās very slow. Basically the only good VPN is one you pay for. When choosing a VPN, be aware of where the company is based, because if a VPN company is based in the USA, it will have to comply USA privacy laws. So choose a VPN based in a country that has good privacy laws. A great one is Mullvad VPN, which is based in Sweden. But for the purposes of Russia, just making sure your VPN is not Russian or in a country sympathetic to Russia is probably good enough.
Alternative Front-Ends A frontend is the the part of a website which the user interacts with directly. To browse the contents of websites, you usually have to visit them. However, many people have made alternative privacy-respecting frontends to popular websites that allow you to see the siteās content without actually visiting the website. This helps avoid tracking, data-collection, and even countriesā attempts to ban websites. Twitter is banned in Russia right now, but using all an alternative frontend to Twitter works (according to my Russian friend).
Google Translate
- Lingva Translate / Instances
- SimplyTranslate / Instances
- some instances allow you to choose to translate with several other services (such as DeepL)
Imgur
Medium
TikTok
Wikipedia
YouTube
YouTube Music
If anyone knows of one of these for Tumblr please let me know. I found this site called Tumgir but it looks sketchy and unlike the rest of the ones I listed, itās not open-source. So visit with caution, but Iām mentioning it because it might be better than nothing.
There are also these browser extensions that automatically redirect site links to the available alternatives:
Mozilla Firefox
- LibRedirectĀ - Redirects YouTube, YT Music, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Imgur, Reddit, Wikipedia, Medium, etc.
Google Chrome
- Privacy RedirectĀ - RedirectsĀ Google Maps, Google Search, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, Youtube.
iPhone (iOS 15+) Safari
- Privacy RedirectĀ -Ā Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, Google Translate, Google maps, Google Search, Medium
Android
- UntrackMeĀ -Ā Google Maps, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube
Messaging / Communication
MatrixĀ is aĀ federated and decentralized End-to-End Encrypted (E2EE) messaging with many platforms, the most popular of which is Element. Itās like Discord, but worse. Itās getting better over time though! You can even use a a throwaway email to sign-up.
If youāre Russian you likely already know about Telegram, but MAKE SURE youāre aware that onlyĀ Secret Chats areĀ End-to-End Encrypted. So donāt say anything that would get you in trouble outside of a Secret Chat.
End Notes
China is way better at internet censorship. Theyāve had years to build the infrastructure to control the flow of information online. And yet, the Chinese people still manage toĀ āclimb the wallā and find ways around this. Russia is new to this game and doesnāt have the resources China does. So I really doubt itāll be that hard to get around their attempts to block websites. Have faith! And feel free to DM me for more info cause this post just scratches the surface for things you can do tbh.
