Russia's two legislative bodies have passed a bill that bans the use of Tor, proxies, and VPNs, and is now on the desk of President Putin to get signed into law. Under the new bill Russian ISPs will have to implement the blocks that prevent users from using these services.
We covered this back in April when the bill was initially considered. At that time it was only going to punish those that allowed access to blocked websites. It seems now to have evolved to be an overall block of the services. Internet freedom seems to be going away faster and faster in places around the world. We may be soon approaching the "Splinternet" where the Internet won't be world wide, but instead a national service.
If signed into law, Russia will become the first country where officials ban proxies, Tor, and VPNs. Despite popular opinion, China does not block these tools. Instead, China requires VPN providers to register with state authorities.
We covered this back in April when the bill was initially considered. At that time it was only going to punish those that allowed access to blocked websites. It seems now to have evolved to be an overall block of the services. Internet freedom seems to be going away faster and faster in places around the world. We may be soon approaching the "Splinternet" where the Internet won't be world wide, but instead a national service.
If signed into law, Russia will become the first country where officials ban proxies, Tor, and VPNs. Despite popular opinion, China does not block these tools. Instead, China requires VPN providers to register with state authorities.