VOA新闻杂志2023--How Russia Controls Information, Watches Citizens

How Russia Controls Information, Watches Citizens

Human rights supporters say Russia under President Vladimir Putin is using online technology to follow, censor¹, and control the population.

Officials are introducing artificial intelligence (AI) systems to monitor social media for information that is not approved. They also are expanding a monitoring network with facial recognition cameras. Critics fear an expansion of online censorship and a loss of privacy rights in Russia.

Rising online censorship

Protests that were organized online from 2011 to 2012 caused Russian officials to increase internet controls.

Some laws permitted officials to block websites. Other laws required that cellphone operators and internet providers store call records and messages and share the information with security services if needed.

Officials pressured companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook to store user data on Russian servers, but it did not lead to change from those companies. Additionally, officials announced plans to cut off Russia's internet from the rest of the world.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, online censorship and legal action against individuals on social media increased a lot.

Net Freedoms is an internet rights group. It found that officials blocked or removed more than 610,000 websites in 2022. That is the highest yearly total in 15 years. In addition to that, 779 people faced criminal charges over comments made online.

Net Freedoms head Damir Gainutdinov said the government enacted² a law one week after the invasion of Ukraine that effectively made antiwar expressions a crime. It outlaws³ "spreading false information" about or "discrediting⁴" the army.

Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group, said there is another 2022 law permitting officials to close media businesses and block online materials if they spread "false information" or call for sanctions against Russia.

Online censorship systems

Internet rights supporters are concerned that online censorship is about to expand further. They say artificial intelligence (AI) systems are monitoring social media and websites for banned content.

In February, the agency that supervises the media, Roskomnadzor, said it was launching Oculus. Oculus is an AI system that looks for banned material in online photos and videos. It can look at more than 200,000 images a day, compared to 200 a day for humans. Two other AI systems are to search written material.

In February, the newspaper Vedomosti reported that an unidentified Roskomnadzor official said the new systems will be used to identify extremist comments, calls for protests and "LGBT propaganda."

A Belarusian hacker⁵ group called Cyberpartisans said it got documents from an agency that is part of Roskomnadzor. The group said officials could also be working on bots, a kind of software program that collect information from social media pages, messenger programs, and closed online communities.

Yuliana Shametavets of Cyberpartisans told the Associated Press the bots are expected to infiltrate⁶ Russian-language social media accounts to monitor and to spread propaganda.

She said, Russia is "great at disinformation campaigns and there are high-class IT experts who create extremely effective and very dangerous products."

"IT" is a short way of saying information technology.

Eyes on the streets

In 2017 and 2018, Moscow officials began placing around the city street cameras that use facial recognition technology to identify people.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, officials were able to follow and fine those who broke rules against going out in public.

When protests over the imprisonment⁷ of opposition⁸ leader Alexei Navalny started in 2021, officials used the system to find and arrest protesters, sometimes weeks later. The system was reportedly used to help officials find people avoiding the draft for military service after the invasion of Ukraine.

Sarkis Darbinyan is with Roskomsvoboda, a Russian internet freedom group.

He said, in Moscow, there are 250,000 cameras in the system. He said they are at entrances to buildings, public transportation, and on the streets. He added that similar systems are in St. Petersburg and other large cities, like Novosibirsk and Kazan.

Darbinyan said he believes officials want to build "a web of cameras around the entire country."

Words in This Story

censor – v. to examine books or movies in order to remove things considered harmful, offensive or immoral⁹

sanctions –n. (pl.) punishments placed on a country to cause it to obey international law

monitor –v. to watch and follow something or somone

LGBT – acronym¹⁰ lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender

hacker –n. a person who breaks into the computers to get information or cause damage

infiltrate – v. to secretly enter or join a group in order to get information or do harm

draft – n. a system in which young people are required to join the armed forces of a country for a period of service

1 censor   

n./vt.审查，审查员；删改

参考例句：

• The film has not been viewed by the censor.这部影片还未经审查人员审查。
• The play was banned by the censor.该剧本被查禁了。

2 enacted   

制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• legislation enacted by parliament 由议会通过的法律
• Outside in the little lobby another scene was begin enacted. 外面的小休息室里又是另一番景象。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

3 outlaws   

歹徒，亡命之徒( outlaw的名词复数 )； 逃犯

参考例句：

• During his year in the forest, Robin met many other outlaws. 在森林里的一年，罗宾遇见其他许多绿林大盗。
• I didn't have to leave the country or fight outlaws. 我不必离开自己的国家，也不必与不法分子斗争。

4 discrediting   

使不相信( discredit的现在分词 )； 使怀疑； 败坏…的名声； 拒绝相信

参考例句：

• It has also led to the discrediting of mainstream macroeconomics. 它还使得人们对主流宏观经济学产生了怀疑。

5 hacker   

n.能盗用或偷改电脑中信息的人，电脑黑客

参考例句：

• The computer hacker wrote that he was from Russia.这个计算机黑客自称他来自俄罗斯。
• This site was attacked by a hacker last week.上周这个网站被黑客攻击了。

6 infiltrate   

vt./vi.渗入，透过；浸润

参考例句：

• The teacher tried to infiltrate her ideas into the children's minds.老师设法把她的思想渗透到孩子们的心中。
• It can infiltrate as much as 100 kilometers into enemy territory at night.可以在夜间深入敌领土100千米。

7 imprisonment   

n.关押，监禁，坐牢

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。

8 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

9 immoral   

adj.不道德的，淫荡的，荒淫的，有伤风化的

参考例句：

• She was questioned about his immoral conduct toward her.她被询问过有关他对她的不道德行为的情况。
• It is my belief that nuclear weapons are immoral.我相信使核武器是不邪恶的。

10 acronym   

n.首字母简略词，简称

参考例句：

• That's a mouthful of an acronym for a very simple technology.对于一项非常简单的技术来说，这是一个很绕口的缩写词。
• TSDF is an acronym for Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facilities.TSDF是处理，储存和处置设施的一个缩写。