8 ms·

Interestingly, they also work for accessing RT and Sputnik from the EU that are banning them.

nix23 5y ago
It's funny that the EU needs censoring to "protect" the public from censored media...that smells really bad to me TBH.
usr1106 5y ago
Broadcasting them in EU is banned. But accessing them on the internet is not. Or in which EU country it has been blocked? (I'm in EU but have not tried. Not interested in their content even for curiosity. I can read in our media what they say: There is no war. Ukraine is no nation, but Russians suppressed by nazis that ask to be liberated. In Russian media other standpoints are not mentioned at all.) Edit: I have no good feeling about banning them. But I understand the Baltic countries: They have a substantial Russian-speaking community that consumes only Russian state media.
- jstanley 5y ago
  > Not interested in their content even for curiosity. I can read in our media what they say If you're not interested in looking even for curiosity, how would you know whether your media is representing them accurately? Do you think it would be reasonable for people in Russia to say they're not interested in looking at the BBC, even for curiosity, because they can read all about what the BBC are saying in Russian media?
  - usr1106 5y ago
    I am not completely happy with Western media. They don't address the fact that stopping cars in Europe would be the hardest sanction to Russia because Russian energy exports have built a strong Russian military and continue to maintain it. Still energy is excluded from sanctions. There are other wars were EU and NATO don't give a good picture. 1000s of people drowng in the Mediterranean. But still I have a basic trust and know that outright lies are much less common in Western media than in Russian ones. If you don't count reports how Trump's victory was stolen. But the US is dangerously close from leaving Western democracy standards. Not the media, but 48% or so of the voters.
- waffleiron 5y ago
  > In Russian media other standpoints are not mentioned at all. How would you know?
  - analognoise 5y ago
    Easy: The law they're passing where if you call the war in Ukraine a war, it's 15 years in jail, and several of the last independent news organizations shutting down, as well as that they've publicly stated they have started to block or degrade several platforms - e.g. Twitter, Facebook?
- rjzzleep 5y ago
  Well Cogent changed their statement and said that the reason they terminated their relationship with Russia is because of EU Regulation 2022/350 which is obviously b/s since they already started the termination before that [1]. This is a whole new level to banning Iranian and Lybian TV broadcasts by Ofcom by the UK. Very irresponsible and completely ignorant of all the slippery slopes and blowback that can happen. At least ICANN and the EFF is run by cooler heads. But maybe you should check indian news which reported that Russia promised them buses to extract indian students[2]. [1] https://www.newspostalk.com/internet-service-provider-cogent-cutting-off-access-to-russian-customers-zdnet/ https://www.newspostalk.com/internet-service-provider-cogent... [2] https://theprint.in/world/130-russian-buses-ready-to-evacuate-indian-students/857932/ https://theprint.in/world/130-russian-buses-ready-to-evacuat...
- LAC-Tech 5y ago
  Your attitude is a little bit perplexing to me. You have so much faith in your media that you trust them to accurately summarise what other media says? Though thinking further I kind of get where you are coming from - there's English language media from a certain country that's so bad at propaganda I cringe just reading the headline. Guess I'm not as open minded as I thought I was.
  - usr1106 5y ago
    > You have so much faith in your media that you trust them to accurately summarise what other media says? Yes, I trust them in that respect. I do disagree with quite many positions of Western society and their media. But I do trust them that they correctly summarize what Russian report about the war, which they are not allowed to call a war. As a foreigner who speaks Finnish I am aware of the weird myths that can be spread by foreign media who don't speak the language. If you search HN submissions for Finland/Finnish you will find some of those, many of those I would see much more nuanced. But I do trust that official Russia lying about the war is a fact.
    - zo1 5y ago
      They look exactly the same as CNN except CNN is being forced to call it the "Ukraine war". E.g. in your example, RT toes the line to this "it's not a war" mandate by saying: Moscow maintains its military offensive in Ukraine is a “special operation” aimed at the [...] Quotes included, they're not saying it's Fact but that Moscow claims it is. Here is another one: Russia *attacked Ukraine* last week, *arguing that it was defending the DPR* and the neighboring Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), which broke away from Ukraine shortly after the 2014 coup in Kiev. *Moscow also said* it was seeking the “demilitarization and denazification” of the country. Meanwhile, Ukraine said the attack was entirely unprovoked and has appealed to the international community for help. Honestly, comparing the two front-pages of CNN and RT, I am positively shocked. Most of CNN's articles are skewed to portray Russia in a bad light, and the RT one seems to be a big list of sanctions and retaliations by the West against Russia. We need to see both.
- harry8 5y ago
  > I can read in our media what they say. Actually, no matter who it is, you can't and hope to get a proper sense of it. Try it sometime. Luck anyone controversial, especially if your really dislike them. Read an account of s sketch they gave in "your media" whatever that is for you. Then read the original transcript. I tried this with Assange more than a decade ago. I had the idea he was a bedrock lunatic crazy reading the accounts. Then i read transcripts it watched video if him and decided well be may be wrong about everything but that impression about what he was was just very wrong. Cherry picked, edited, context missing to make him seem as repulsive as they possibly could in every dimension. Always form your own view and don't let it be handed to you fully formed. Go for the source documents whenever you can /especially/ when everyone is angry and upset. You're unlikely to change 180 at all. You are likely to have a deeper understanding of nuance and who is taking advantage of the situation for their own ends and why. This advice is the same for American media if you don't live in the US, or middle eastern, or African it Asian. At the minimum it should take you no more than 10 minutes to confirm RT is exactly what you think it is and that is worthwhile in itself.
MagnumOpus 5y ago
[flagged]
- fulvioterzapi 5y ago
  Good analysis! But you should consider another quite radical hypothesis: people can freely have political opinion different from yours, and they are not being paid by some evil puppet-master! I know, it’s not easy!
fsh 5y ago
Neither of these websites are banned in the EU. The servers are not very responsive at the moment though. Probably someone is DDOS'ing them.
swinglock 5y ago
No, that's false. I can access rt.com from Europe normally after a "checking your browser" screen. Using the Tor browser however, rt.com blocks access after said screen.
- demindiro 5y ago
  In Belgium it is very much unreachable unless you change your DNS server. It shows the big STOP page that is otherwise used for e.g. The Pirate Bay.
roland_nilsson 5y ago
From my location in Sweden, sputniknews.com is currently available but www.rt.com is not (error 403). Probably sputnik will go away as well, as the EU ban on these outlets is "expected to cover all means of distribution or transmission, including internet video sharing platforms and applications" https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/28/eu-rt-ban-extends-online/ https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/28/eu-rt-ban-extends-online/ This seems like a boneheaded move. What credibility will the EU have in criticizing media censorship in Russia when they engage in censorship themselves?
- roywashere 5y ago
  Yeah I really do not understand that! Very strange move
- waffleiron 5y ago
  It’s to the point where RT is able to publish the equivalent of this BBC article. https://www.rt.com/russia/551256-how-access-rt-censorship-bypass/ https://www.rt.com/russia/551256-how-access-rt-censorship-by...
- SahAssar 5y ago
  How are they able to return a http response without having the keys to the site? Has EU gotten a CA (digicert in this case) to issue keys for the domain, redirected DNS and setup some server to specifically return a 403? I'm guessing RT is smart enough to not use a western hosting provider and CDN.
- nix23 5y ago
  I think russia itself probably blocked www.rt.com and russian.rt.com for non russian IP's so you can publicize two different versions, because de.rt.com works just fine ;)
- demindiro 5y ago
  As far as I can tell the 403 error is caused by their DDoS protection thinking you are a bot. Refreshing the page at a later time and not opening too many tabs at once seems to help.
ttybird2 5y ago
In that case they are illegal. https://yanmaani.github.io/does-council-regulation-eu-2022/350-make-it-illegal-to-operate-a-tor-node-in-the-eu/ https://yanmaani.github.io/does-council-regulation-eu-2022/3...
agucova 5y ago
Those sites aren't banned in the EU, this is pure misinformation.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

It's funny that the EU needs censoring to "protect" the public from censored media...that smells really bad to me TBH.

Broadcasting them in EU is banned. But accessing them on the internet is not. Or in which EU country it has been blocked? (I'm in EU but have not tried. Not interested in their content even for curiosity. I can read in our media what they say: There is no war. Ukraine is no nation, but Russians suppressed by nazis that ask to be liberated. In Russian media other standpoints are not mentioned at all.) Edit: I have no good feeling about banning them. But I understand the Baltic countries: They have a substantial Russian-speaking community that consumes only Russian state media.

jstanley 5y ago
> Not interested in their content even for curiosity. I can read in our media what they say If you're not interested in looking even for curiosity, how would you know whether your media is representing them accurately? Do you think it would be reasonable for people in Russia to say they're not interested in looking at the BBC, even for curiosity, because they can read all about what the BBC are saying in Russian media?
- usr1106 5y ago
  I am not completely happy with Western media. They don't address the fact that stopping cars in Europe would be the hardest sanction to Russia because Russian energy exports have built a strong Russian military and continue to maintain it. Still energy is excluded from sanctions. There are other wars were EU and NATO don't give a good picture. 1000s of people drowng in the Mediterranean. But still I have a basic trust and know that outright lies are much less common in Western media than in Russian ones. If you don't count reports how Trump's victory was stolen. But the US is dangerously close from leaving Western democracy standards. Not the media, but 48% or so of the voters.
waffleiron 5y ago
> In Russian media other standpoints are not mentioned at all. How would you know?
- analognoise 5y ago
  Easy: The law they're passing where if you call the war in Ukraine a war, it's 15 years in jail, and several of the last independent news organizations shutting down, as well as that they've publicly stated they have started to block or degrade several platforms - e.g. Twitter, Facebook?
rjzzleep 5y ago
Well Cogent changed their statement and said that the reason they terminated their relationship with Russia is because of EU Regulation 2022/350 which is obviously b/s since they already started the termination before that [1]. This is a whole new level to banning Iranian and Lybian TV broadcasts by Ofcom by the UK. Very irresponsible and completely ignorant of all the slippery slopes and blowback that can happen. At least ICANN and the EFF is run by cooler heads. But maybe you should check indian news which reported that Russia promised them buses to extract indian students[2]. [1] https://www.newspostalk.com/internet-service-provider-cogent-cutting-off-access-to-russian-customers-zdnet/ https://www.newspostalk.com/internet-service-provider-cogent... [2] https://theprint.in/world/130-russian-buses-ready-to-evacuate-indian-students/857932/ https://theprint.in/world/130-russian-buses-ready-to-evacuat...
LAC-Tech 5y ago
Your attitude is a little bit perplexing to me. You have so much faith in your media that you trust them to accurately summarise what other media says? Though thinking further I kind of get where you are coming from - there's English language media from a certain country that's so bad at propaganda I cringe just reading the headline. Guess I'm not as open minded as I thought I was.
- usr1106 5y ago
  > You have so much faith in your media that you trust them to accurately summarise what other media says? Yes, I trust them in that respect. I do disagree with quite many positions of Western society and their media. But I do trust them that they correctly summarize what Russian report about the war, which they are not allowed to call a war. As a foreigner who speaks Finnish I am aware of the weird myths that can be spread by foreign media who don't speak the language. If you search HN submissions for Finland/Finnish you will find some of those, many of those I would see much more nuanced. But I do trust that official Russia lying about the war is a fact.
  - zo1 5y ago
    They look exactly the same as CNN except CNN is being forced to call it the "Ukraine war". E.g. in your example, RT toes the line to this "it's not a war" mandate by saying: Moscow maintains its military offensive in Ukraine is a “special operation” aimed at the [...] Quotes included, they're not saying it's Fact but that Moscow claims it is. Here is another one: Russia *attacked Ukraine* last week, *arguing that it was defending the DPR* and the neighboring Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), which broke away from Ukraine shortly after the 2014 coup in Kiev. *Moscow also said* it was seeking the “demilitarization and denazification” of the country. Meanwhile, Ukraine said the attack was entirely unprovoked and has appealed to the international community for help. Honestly, comparing the two front-pages of CNN and RT, I am positively shocked. Most of CNN's articles are skewed to portray Russia in a bad light, and the RT one seems to be a big list of sanctions and retaliations by the West against Russia. We need to see both.
harry8 5y ago
> I can read in our media what they say. Actually, no matter who it is, you can't and hope to get a proper sense of it. Try it sometime. Luck anyone controversial, especially if your really dislike them. Read an account of s sketch they gave in "your media" whatever that is for you. Then read the original transcript. I tried this with Assange more than a decade ago. I had the idea he was a bedrock lunatic crazy reading the accounts. Then i read transcripts it watched video if him and decided well be may be wrong about everything but that impression about what he was was just very wrong. Cherry picked, edited, context missing to make him seem as repulsive as they possibly could in every dimension. Always form your own view and don't let it be handed to you fully formed. Go for the source documents whenever you can /especially/ when everyone is angry and upset. You're unlikely to change 180 at all. You are likely to have a deeper understanding of nuance and who is taking advantage of the situation for their own ends and why. This advice is the same for American media if you don't live in the US, or middle eastern, or African it Asian. At the minimum it should take you no more than 10 minutes to confirm RT is exactly what you think it is and that is worthwhile in itself.

MagnumOpus 5y ago

[flagged]

fulvioterzapi 5y ago
Good analysis! But you should consider another quite radical hypothesis: people can freely have political opinion different from yours, and they are not being paid by some evil puppet-master! I know, it’s not easy!

fsh 5y ago

Neither of these websites are banned in the EU. The servers are not very responsive at the moment though. Probably someone is DDOS'ing them.

swinglock 5y ago

No, that's false. I can access rt.com from Europe normally after a "checking your browser" screen. Using the Tor browser however, rt.com blocks access after said screen.

demindiro 5y ago
In Belgium it is very much unreachable unless you change your DNS server. It shows the big STOP page that is otherwise used for e.g. The Pirate Bay.

roland_nilsson 5y ago

From my location in Sweden, sputniknews.com is currently available but www.rt.com is not (error 403). Probably sputnik will go away as well, as the EU ban on these outlets is "expected to cover all means of distribution or transmission, including internet video sharing platforms and applications" https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/28/eu-rt-ban-extends-online/ https://techcrunch.com/2022/02/28/eu-rt-ban-extends-online/ This seems like a boneheaded move. What credibility will the EU have in criticizing media censorship in Russia when they engage in censorship themselves?

roywashere 5y ago
Yeah I really do not understand that! Very strange move
waffleiron 5y ago
It’s to the point where RT is able to publish the equivalent of this BBC article. https://www.rt.com/russia/551256-how-access-rt-censorship-bypass/ https://www.rt.com/russia/551256-how-access-rt-censorship-by...
SahAssar 5y ago
How are they able to return a http response without having the keys to the site? Has EU gotten a CA (digicert in this case) to issue keys for the domain, redirected DNS and setup some server to specifically return a 403? I'm guessing RT is smart enough to not use a western hosting provider and CDN.
nix23 5y ago
I think russia itself probably blocked www.rt.com and russian.rt.com for non russian IP's so you can publicize two different versions, because de.rt.com works just fine ;)
demindiro 5y ago
As far as I can tell the 403 error is caused by their DDoS protection thinking you are a bot. Refreshing the page at a later time and not opening too many tabs at once seems to help.

ttybird2 5y ago

In that case they are illegal. https://yanmaani.github.io/does-council-regulation-eu-2022/350-make-it-illegal-to-operate-a-tor-node-in-the-eu/ https://yanmaani.github.io/does-council-regulation-eu-2022/3...

agucova 5y ago

Those sites aren't banned in the EU, this is pure misinformation.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]