6 ms·

Do you have examples for Europe blocking Russia? Because all I have seen is DNS providers omitting certain sites (i.e RT), but their apps still work (plus URLs

by patall 2y ago

Do you have examples for Europe blocking Russia? Because all I have seen is DNS providers omitting certain sites (i.e RT), but their apps still work (plus URLs when using other DNS). An nothing of that coming from the nation states as all seems to be due to the activities of private companies doing these things.

cassianoleal 2y ago
At least in the UK, you used to be able to watch RT on broadcast. Now only the Internet version is accessible, and I think some ISPs DNS block them. Granted, a DNS block is easy to circumvent if you understand it, but most users will still be cut off.
- Scoundreller 2y ago
  As a total outlier, RT was paying the cable/sat systems to be carried in US/Canada, instead of the other way around. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/rts-purchase-of-canadian-carriage-would-be-a-non-issue-if-not-for-the-secrecy/article37869704/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/rts-purchase-of-cana... https://www.wsj.com/articles/rt-channels-unique-carriage-deals-make-it-difficult-to-drop-in-u-s-1485361056 https://www.wsj.com/articles/rt-channels-unique-carriage-dea... I wonder if other countries were the same.
  - TylerE 2y ago
    That’s not really an outlier. Common for political networks, religious channels, shopping networks…. Probably more than half the channels on a typical American cable system are paying to be there. Especially the stuff in the basic tiers.
- jimbobthrowawy 2y ago
  Was it actually broadcast terrestrially? I remember picking it up from Astra2 (the "skytv" satellite) but looking online, it's not transmitted anymore.
  - cassianoleal 2y ago
    I used to watch it on Freeview, picked up via a regular antenna if that's what you mean by "terrestrially".
jdietrich 2y ago
RT, Sputnik and related Russian state media outlets are subject to sanctions in the EU, their broadcast licenses have been revoked and their channels have been removed from terrestrial, cable and satellite broadcasts. Their accounts on all major social media platforms are blocked. Their apps are no longer available on the Google or Apple stores. Europe doesn't have a Chinese-style Great Firewall, but EU countries have taken every reasonable step to prevent Russian state media from reaching EU audiences. https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-rt-sputnik-illegal-europe/ https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-rt-sputnik-illegal-eu... https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2022/ofcom-revokes-rt-broadcast-licence https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2022/ofcom-revokes-rt-b... https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/01/youtube-tiktok-facebook-state-media-ban/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/01/youtube... https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-google-blocks-rt-sputnik-play-app-store-europe-2022-03-02/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-google-blocks-r...
- medo-bear 2y ago
  > Europe doesn't have a Chinese-style Great Firewall, but EU countries have taken every reasonable step to prevent Russian state media from reaching EU audiences. Because they think the EU audiances are stupid?
  - guappa 2y ago
    Because they don't like anti-government point of views to become too widespread. In Italy the current defence minister is personally earning considerable amount of money by sending weapons to Ukraine, because he's also an owner and manager of companies that make said weapons. Do you think they'd want to favour open discussions? No. In fact besides RT being banned, they want to be able to block any website, giving providers 30 minutes to implement the ban, no appeal and no oversight from a judge (https://stop-piracy-shield.it/ https://stop-piracy-shield.it/)
    - pigpang 2y ago
      > In Italy the current defence minister is personally earning considerable amount of money by sending weapons to Ukraine, because he's also an owner and manager of companies that make said weapons. FUD is the reason why Russian liars are banned from EU.
angra_mainyu 2y ago
rt.com and their twitter are blocked. How are you not aware of this? It's been a few years already. The EU ruled on this. https://paste.pics/4b60ebef97d3b7fbb6aba74637c2e818 https://paste.pics/4b60ebef97d3b7fbb6aba74637c2e818 https://paste.pics/0cb2ae98754165dad5cf086e75c4cc31 https://paste.pics/0cb2ae98754165dad5cf086e75c4cc31
- Hock88sdx 2y ago
  Many using VPN. For example if you set the VPN servers to HK, RT will display as usual. In general I notice my peers will use anti-west countries based servers for censored western news and the reverse for anti-east. Some do use it so intuitively they might not realized RT or any Russian sites blocked. A lot of time I just assume it is due to network outages.
  - distances 2y ago
    I would think most people know about RT blocking because it was widely announced and discussed at the time, and not because they actually tried to access RT.
- jurmous 2y ago
  I am in the Netherlands and I am able to visit rt.com without VPN.
  - AlecSchueler 2y ago
    Netherlands here also and it's blocked for me.
    - orlp 2y ago
      Not for me.
  - sdk77 2y ago
    Me too. I didn't even know about this blockade. I'm using T-Mobile fiber internet and rt.com loads just fine.
liopleurodon 2y ago
It's part of the EU sanctions, EU ISPs are required to block certain Russian sites. But they didn't specify how, that's left up to the countries to figure out afaik. But as you say, some of the what has been done barely qualifies. Here's my personal experience with this: Germany does exactly what you describe, the bare minimum to say "we're blocking" --- DNS omitting certain sites. Spain is doing deep packet inspection, blocking DNS requests that lookup RT, so DNS over HTTPS or through a VPN is a must. Additionally, they're also reading the SNI in TLS requests and blocking that way. If you try accessing RT in pure unencrypted HTTP you're get some fortigate blocking message back.
- Maken 2y ago
  It is still perfectly possible to access RT from Spain, even using regular ISP DNS servers.
  - liopleurodon 2y ago
    That's not my experience with Movistar, they are throwing down the gauntlet
- guappa 2y ago
  mullivad has a free to use DNS over https service by the way.
- patall 2y ago
  Thanks, though that specifically why I am questioning that it is the EU in this case. Because rt.com is reachable in Sweden just fine, including sub-sites. Which, to me, says that it must be national sanctions, or at minimum, national lists of what to 'block'.
  - dagw 2y ago
    Because rt.com is reachable in Sweden just fine, including sub-sites. See discussion further down thread, but basically the block in Sweden seems to be on the ISP level and depends on which ISP you have. I can access rt.com via work wifi, but not not over mobile data via Telia. Another user who has Telia as their home ISP cannot access rt.com from home either.

by patall 2y ago

cassianoleal 2y ago

At least in the UK, you used to be able to watch RT on broadcast. Now only the Internet version is accessible, and I think some ISPs DNS block them. Granted, a DNS block is easy to circumvent if you understand it, but most users will still be cut off.

Scoundreller 2y ago
As a total outlier, RT was paying the cable/sat systems to be carried in US/Canada, instead of the other way around. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/rts-purchase-of-canadian-carriage-would-be-a-non-issue-if-not-for-the-secrecy/article37869704/ https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/rts-purchase-of-cana... https://www.wsj.com/articles/rt-channels-unique-carriage-deals-make-it-difficult-to-drop-in-u-s-1485361056 https://www.wsj.com/articles/rt-channels-unique-carriage-dea... I wonder if other countries were the same.
- TylerE 2y ago
  That’s not really an outlier. Common for political networks, religious channels, shopping networks…. Probably more than half the channels on a typical American cable system are paying to be there. Especially the stuff in the basic tiers.
jimbobthrowawy 2y ago
Was it actually broadcast terrestrially? I remember picking it up from Astra2 (the "skytv" satellite) but looking online, it's not transmitted anymore.
- cassianoleal 2y ago
  I used to watch it on Freeview, picked up via a regular antenna if that's what you mean by "terrestrially".

jdietrich 2y ago

RT, Sputnik and related Russian state media outlets are subject to sanctions in the EU, their broadcast licenses have been revoked and their channels have been removed from terrestrial, cable and satellite broadcasts. Their accounts on all major social media platforms are blocked. Their apps are no longer available on the Google or Apple stores. Europe doesn't have a Chinese-style Great Firewall, but EU countries have taken every reasonable step to prevent Russian state media from reaching EU audiences. https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-rt-sputnik-illegal-europe/ https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-rt-sputnik-illegal-eu... https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2022/ofcom-revokes-rt-broadcast-licence https://www.ofcom.org.uk/news-centre/2022/ofcom-revokes-rt-b... https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/01/youtube-tiktok-facebook-state-media-ban/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/01/youtube... https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-google-blocks-rt-sputnik-play-app-store-europe-2022-03-02/ https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-google-blocks-r...

medo-bear 2y ago
> Europe doesn't have a Chinese-style Great Firewall, but EU countries have taken every reasonable step to prevent Russian state media from reaching EU audiences. Because they think the EU audiances are stupid?
- guappa 2y ago
  Because they don't like anti-government point of views to become too widespread. In Italy the current defence minister is personally earning considerable amount of money by sending weapons to Ukraine, because he's also an owner and manager of companies that make said weapons. Do you think they'd want to favour open discussions? No. In fact besides RT being banned, they want to be able to block any website, giving providers 30 minutes to implement the ban, no appeal and no oversight from a judge (https://stop-piracy-shield.it/ https://stop-piracy-shield.it/)
  - pigpang 2y ago
    > In Italy the current defence minister is personally earning considerable amount of money by sending weapons to Ukraine, because he's also an owner and manager of companies that make said weapons. FUD is the reason why Russian liars are banned from EU.

angra_mainyu 2y ago

rt.com and their twitter are blocked. How are you not aware of this? It's been a few years already. The EU ruled on this. https://paste.pics/4b60ebef97d3b7fbb6aba74637c2e818 https://paste.pics/4b60ebef97d3b7fbb6aba74637c2e818 https://paste.pics/0cb2ae98754165dad5cf086e75c4cc31 https://paste.pics/0cb2ae98754165dad5cf086e75c4cc31

Hock88sdx 2y ago
Many using VPN. For example if you set the VPN servers to HK, RT will display as usual. In general I notice my peers will use anti-west countries based servers for censored western news and the reverse for anti-east. Some do use it so intuitively they might not realized RT or any Russian sites blocked. A lot of time I just assume it is due to network outages.
- distances 2y ago
  I would think most people know about RT blocking because it was widely announced and discussed at the time, and not because they actually tried to access RT.
jurmous 2y ago
I am in the Netherlands and I am able to visit rt.com without VPN.
- AlecSchueler 2y ago
  Netherlands here also and it's blocked for me.
  - orlp 2y ago
    Not for me.
- sdk77 2y ago
  Me too. I didn't even know about this blockade. I'm using T-Mobile fiber internet and rt.com loads just fine.

liopleurodon 2y ago

It's part of the EU sanctions, EU ISPs are required to block certain Russian sites. But they didn't specify how, that's left up to the countries to figure out afaik. But as you say, some of the what has been done barely qualifies. Here's my personal experience with this: Germany does exactly what you describe, the bare minimum to say "we're blocking" --- DNS omitting certain sites. Spain is doing deep packet inspection, blocking DNS requests that lookup RT, so DNS over HTTPS or through a VPN is a must. Additionally, they're also reading the SNI in TLS requests and blocking that way. If you try accessing RT in pure unencrypted HTTP you're get some fortigate blocking message back.

Maken 2y ago
It is still perfectly possible to access RT from Spain, even using regular ISP DNS servers.
- liopleurodon 2y ago
  That's not my experience with Movistar, they are throwing down the gauntlet
guappa 2y ago
mullivad has a free to use DNS over https service by the way.
patall 2y ago
Thanks, though that specifically why I am questioning that it is the EU in this case. Because rt.com is reachable in Sweden just fine, including sub-sites. Which, to me, says that it must be national sanctions, or at minimum, national lists of what to 'block'.
- dagw 2y ago
  Because rt.com is reachable in Sweden just fine, including sub-sites. See discussion further down thread, but basically the block in Sweden seems to be on the ISP level and depends on which ISP you have. I can access rt.com via work wifi, but not not over mobile data via Telia. Another user who has Telia as their home ISP cannot access rt.com from home either.