Firefox @lemmy.ml sabreW4K3 @lazysoci.al 5 mo. ago

Mozilla Firefox Blocks Add-Ons to Circumvent Russia Censorship

theintercept.com Firefox Browser Blocks Anti-Censorship Add-Ons at Russia’s Request

At Russia’s request, Firefox web browser maker Mozilla blocked add-ons that are designed to circumvent internet censorship.

64 comments

WTF on the part of Mozilla
- I suspect this was a "do it or we'll categorize Mozilla products as malicious software" situations. But some transparency from Mozilla would be nice.
  
  They should tell Russia to eat a dick. Remember when Google did that to China? I thought it was very cool of them
  
  Let them. If everyone refuses to comply the authoritarian control of the Russian government over its people will crumble a little.
- because it's either do that or block all of firefox from existing in russia.
  
  besides it's not really a big deal since firefox can install extensions outside of mozilla add-ons. the intercept is just sensational trash.
  
  Instagram is banned and blocked in Russia but it hasn't stopped the people from using it at all.
  
  firefox can install extensions outside of mozilla add-ons
  
  release builds cannot and all extensions not signed by Mozilla will refuse to install
  
  Instagram is banned and blocked in Russia but it remains widely used.
Shadowsocks...

And guys! Please get your snowflake proxies running!
- snowflake is actually blocked quite well
  
  Any alts for them out there that people could contribute too?
  
  I'm using Outline. Is that safe? I've never tested it against a hostile nation though.
- Already done, has been for several months 😆
And US government just forbade any IT services to work with Russia
- not "any", but some very specific ones
A quick web search for "page is not available in your region" indicates that it's not the first time they've done something like this.
Any similar extensions to bypass EU censorship?
- Tor browser?
  
  That's what I have been using. More often than not I get exit nodes that allow the propaganda through.
- A proxy or VPN outside the EU?
  
  An extension would allow me to use FF as I usually do for all sites except for list-of-blocked-sites-in-EU that the extension would work its magic on to allow data through. Also, I wouldn't have to look for a secure proxy myself and it would work (hopefully) on FF for mobile devices.
  
  (Right now I'm using Tor which was already suggested in a different comment. The effort of having to open Tor is small but I was wondering whther an extension like Censor Tracker existed.)
  
  I suppose a proxy could work. Ideally I would have multiple proxies working within the same profile like
  
  Proxy 1 for websites A, B, C (uni proxy so I can access papers)
  
  Proxy 2 for websites E, F, G (Russia proxy so I can read EU-blocked stuff)
  
  Rest goes unproxied.
Either Connect to VPN > Download the Add-on.

Or, on the GitHub or Gitlab page, provide a copy of extension and the instruction to install it locally.
- The problem with this is that Russia tries to block all popular VPNs as well.
  
  I know, there are many VPNs and you can host your own VPNs, but most regular users won't bother.
- Or even better, do not live in Russia
  
  Me omw to move out from russia (it's sooo easy to do)
  
  gee why didn't the people who live there think of that. /s
If only Firefox had publicly available source code that anyone could compile
Why is Mozilla even in Russia? They really should pull out completely and the certainly should not comply with this requests.
- You do realize that the world doesn't revolve around western whims and ideas?
  
  It kind of does in some regards. Mozilla is a US company
  
  Not supporting dictator censorship is a whim now?
What the frigging cow-dung is going on there, Mozilla?
This is the best summary I could come up with:

Stanislav Shakirov, the chief technical officer of Roskomsvoboda, a Russian open internet group, said he hoped it was a rash decision by Mozilla that will be more carefully examined.

“It’s a kind of unpleasant surprise because we thought the values of this corporation were very clear in terms of access to information, and its policy was somewhat different,” Shakirov said.

Developers of digital tools designed to get around censorship began noticing recently that their Firefox add-ons were no longer available in Russia.

Roskomnadzor is responsible for “control and supervision in telecommunications, information technology, and mass communications,” according to the Russia’s federal censorship agency’s English-language page.

In March, the New York Times reported that Roskomnadzor was increasing its operations to restrict access to censorship circumvention technologies such as VPNs.

“For the last few months, Roskomnadzor (after the adoption of the law in Russia that prohibits the promotion of tools for bypassing blockings) has been sending such complaints about content to everyone.”

The original article contains 703 words, the summary contains 160 words. Saved 77%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Disgusting.
Hot take: Mozilla should stop with the political nonsense and spend their resources on improving Firefox.
- For that matter maybe they should actually stand up for freedom and privacy
Hi tankies! waves
- Hi fascist! punches
- I think they would be happy that Russia is fighting down censorship
- Liberals continue to confirm that the depth of their worldview is a flat, featureless line, with no prompting whatsoever. Thank you.
No surprise the comments here are very western liberal like. I can see a possibility of overlap between thirsty genociders at Washington and commenters in this thread.
- What a hot take. I bet you're real fun at parties.
Great for Russians ! Nobody wants, or needs US/Capitalist propaganda/manipulation in the back door..
- yeah the russia government that is currently full of oligarchs definitely doesn't like capitalist propaganda and manipulation.

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