If in 2015 a country needs to establish an “Internet Defense Society,” things are very bad. That is exactly the situation in Russia. Instead of using this new sector to increase national wealth, it is being squeezed from all sides: from obstacles to online commerce and the crackdown on payment systems to, of course, website blocking and the creation of pathetic “state search engines” instead of fostering competition.
I am convinced that in 2016, the fight against “that Internet of theirs” in general, and against free speech online in particular, will become one of the key items on the political agenda.
Just look at what ghouls are being appointed as the “official representatives of the industry.” We have plenty of successful entrepreneurs and experts in this field; it would be easy to find some who are relatively conservative, so that the current authorities could work with them comfortably. Conservative, but respected.
And yet they appoint absolute trash. Genuine con artists. First there was this “internet ombudsman,” who SUDDENLY got hooked on no-bid government funding, and now Klimenko, the creator of the buggy and pathetic LiveInternet, has become an “internet adviser” — a man whose declaration, “I’m a crook and a political prostitute,” is practically his public life motto. His most notorious statements:
— If having black caviar in the fridge means I have to shout “Putin is great!”, then I’ll shout it — Telegram must be shut down if it does not hand over access codes to the security services — You could shut down all .com domains, and 90% of users wouldn’t even notice.
In this situation, Leonid Volkov’s initiative to create an Internet Defense Society is not only right, but necessary. We badly need an organized group of people who can do the practical political and organizational work of defending the internet and who will not be afraid to call things by their proper names.
There are plenty of areas for the Internet Defense Society to work on — from analyzing harmful laws and legally challenging unlawful actions by officials to advising all of us which candidates and lawmakers should be taken down and which should be supported from the standpoint of the industry’s interests.
Go here and join the effort if this is a cause you care about.