The red web
by Andreĭ Soldatov, Irina Borogan · first published 2015
4mentions
2recommended by
3HN commenters
2015–2018first – last mentioned
67% recommend33% neutral
From Soviet-era research laboratories to the present, traces the history of Russian intelligence and surveillance systems, and looks at technology's potential for both good and evil under Vladimir Putin's regime.
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If you're looking for a good book covering Russia's attempts at harnessing/controlling/etc the Internet (both domestically and internationally): The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia’s Digital Dictators and the New Online Revolutionaries https://www.amazon.com/Red-Web-Struggle-Dictators-Revolution...
on “Russia Requires Apple and Google to Remove LinkedIn from Local App Stores” ↗For a history on Putin's censorship: https://www.amazon.com/Red-Web-Struggle-Dictators-Revolution...
on “Apple and Russia Face Off Over Telegram on App Store” ↗…an important case because it’s part of the general offensive against https. Roskomnadzor and the FSB [security services] don’t know what to do with it,” said Andrei Soldatov, a journalist and author of Red Web, a book about the Russian internet. Soldatov said SORM, the system Russia uses for internet surveillance, does not work with the more secure https protocol, also used by sites such as Facebook and Gmail.…
on “Russia briefly bans Wikipedia over page relating to drug use” ↗After finishing The Red Web[0], reports like this absolutely freak me out. This sort of censorship is a totalitarian government's dream, and there's no way to verify who or what is influencing Facebook's timeline algorithms, not…
on “Blocked by Facebook and the Vulnerability of New Media” ↗