Meduza

Meduza is an independent-minded online media that brings news and feature stories from hundreds of sources in Russia and across the former Soviet Union in both Russian and English languages. This publication has been designated a "foreign agent" by the Russian authorities under a controversial law.

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Russian lawmakers plan to tighten screws on social media

April 10, 2018

Deputies in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, have drafted a new version of legislation that would impose additional regulations on social networks. The draft legislation includes, in particular, the following points: Every major social network would be required to establish representation in Russia, to make it easier for the Russian authorities to communicate with these …

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Telegram is fighting for its life in Russia

March 22, 2018

The Russian authorities are formally moving ahead with the process by which they could block the use of Telegram on Russian soil. On March 20 Roskomnadzor, the Internet and telecom regulator, officially informed Telegram that it’s in noncompliance with the law, after Telegram refused to provide decrypted copies of all user correspondence to the Federal …

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Sexy ‘graft’ video may lead Russia to block Instagram, YouTube

February 13, 2018

Russia may block access to YouTube and Instagram after billionaire Oleg Deripaska won a court injunction against videos and photographs that showed him and Deputy Prime Minister Sergey Prikhodko relaxing on a yacht with a woman described as an escort. As reported by Bloomberg, the Russian court has ordered the removal of 14 Instagram posts and seven YouTube videos that …

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Russia considers introducing artificial intelligence in law enforcement system

November 13, 2017

In a new proposal to Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, the federal government’s Project Activities Department is suggesting reforms to Russia’s law enforcement system that would introduce artificial intelligence, according to documents obtained by the newspaper Kommersant and cited by online publication Meduza.io. The new technology would be used at three stages: first, to identify obsolete and ineffective legal norms; …

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Telegram challenges Russian court decision over ‘Big Brother law’

October 26, 2017

The instant messenger Telegram has formally challenged a fine imposed for refusing to obey orders from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to surrender the encryption keys it uses to protect its users’ communications. Telegram was fined by a Moscow district court on October 16. After the ruling takes effect, Roskomnadzor, the Russian telecom and Internet regulator, will have legal grounds to block …

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A lawsuit in St. Petersburg raises questions about Telegram’s operations in Russia

September 21, 2017

On September 18, an article appeared on Medium written by a man named Anton Rozenberg, who identified himself as the former technical director at the Russian social network Vkontakte and a former director of special operations at the instant messenger Telegram. In the text, Rozenberg described his falling out with the Durov brothers, who created both Vkontakte …

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Russian justice system closes in on public transportation hackers

August 25, 2017

A court case in Moscow is wrapping up against three hackers who broke into several reusable transportation card services, including the ‘Troika Card.’ Prosecutors say the defendants caused 2 million rubles ($34,000) in damages by hacking Moscow’s public transportation payment system, illegally adding fare credits to reusable cards, and then selling the cards. A verdict …

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Russian FSB agents allegedly turned over hacker secrets to CIA

August 23, 2017

The treason case against a handful of former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agents was launched after the suspects passed several names and other information about Russian hackers to the CIA, an unnamed source reportedly close to the FSB told the TV station Dozhd. Ivan Pavlov, the lawyer for one of the treason suspects, has denied these allegations. As director …

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Western far-right groups started migrating to the Russian Internet after being banned on Facebook

August 20, 2017

There are already more than a hundred neo-Nazi groups with community pages on Vkontakte, Russia’s most popular social network. The groups’ subscribers are users in Russia, the U.S., Germany, Sweden, and other countries. There are also a few dozen hate groups on Vkontakte created and populated entirely by foreigners. Some of these pages have as …

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Russian lawmakers unanimously adopt first reading of legislation to ban VPNs and Internet anonymizers

June 29, 2017

Last week Russian lawmakers in the State Duma unanimously adopted the first reading of legislation that would ban technologies that make it possible to circumvent Internet censorship. In the law’s explanatory note, the Duma deputies argue that Russia’s existing system to block illegal content on the Web is “not effective enough.” 363 deputies voted in …

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Yandex’s co-founder Arkady Volozh discusses monopoly, Google, Ukraine, censorship, and robots

June 3, 2017

Arkady Volozh, the co-founder of Yandex, the NASDAQ-listed Russian Internet giant, doesn’t like giving interviews to the media. However, he made an exception this week, following the recent settlement between Google and Russia’s Antimonopoly Service over a lawsuit brought by Yandex. Speaking to Anastasia Golitsyna, a correspondent for the business daily Vedomosti, Volozh answered questions …

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