ProtonMail back up in Russia after regime chokes access over 'terrorist activity'

ProtonMail is "back to running normally in Russia now" after the country blocked access to the encrypted email service, claiming that students at a sports competition were using it to spread anti-regime propaganda. The Russian-language Habr news aggregator reported yesterday that Russian telcos MTS and Rostelecom were …

[JohnFen]

ProtonMail's trustworthiness

I wonder what sort of concessions ProtonMail had to make to Russia in order for this to happen.

[cornetman]

Re: ProtonMail's trustworthiness

> "We don't want to share the technical details for reasons that you can probably understand"

They are probably using a VPN of some sort.

ProtonMail's main reason for existing is their promise to not compromise on privacy under any circumstances. Any sniff of a sell out, will completely destroy their business model.

[JohnFen]

Re: ProtonMail's trustworthiness

Yes, I know. But at least to me, this qualifies as such a sniff.

[cornetman]

Re: ProtonMail's trustworthiness

Maybe so, but there are fair easier ways to get service back up than the Russians strong-arming a company based in Switzerland. It doesn't seem to me to be plausible at least.

[JohnFen]

Re: ProtonMail's trustworthiness

Maybe so. I'm not actually condemning ProtonMail. I'm merely saying that there's a new question mark.

[Flywheel]

Re: ProtonMail's trustworthiness

> They are probably using a VPN of some sort.

I heard that VPNs were banned in Russia, so accessing a banned email system using a banned transport is really going to p1ss Mr Putin off...

[oldtaku]

Terrists!

And by 'terrorist activity', Putin's goons mean 'free speech,' 'saying things about the Russian kleptocracy that makes them sad,' and most especially 'journalism free of Kremlin spying'.

[David Shaw]

it is all about the nudges

I use ProtonMail quite a lot, partly for historic reasons as I was in the team that wildly abused Protons in the 80's.

Mostly PM is (deliberately) used for swapping recipies and shopping-lists (dogfood/catfood etc not exothermic shopping).

As an accidental observer of much recent & ancient russian language news output, sadly many of you have been led a bit astray by the deliberate cluster 'nudges' , it is not your fault , the nudges are well designed and high bandwidth.

Big Russia IS an autocratic, kleptocratic government, always has been, always will be ... you might be surprised tho' that the press is apparently freer there than in other parts of the world.

Just one example. In the Russian TV 'Channel One' equivalent of BBC's Question Time, they have an embedded American panel member, [ a genuine valid Putin hating US journo called Michael Bohm], and they let him explain his point of view on all the major stories - in Russian - to the Russian people. The intelligent people on the panel then have a quiet chat with him from their point of view. There is a debate, (sometimes shouting at Michael and/or each other) not a mere 'balanced' soundbite show, where everyone says apparently exactly what the deliberate cluster 'nudge' is telling them to say that week.

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2017/12/07/moscow-police-question-american-journalist-michael-bohm-over-registration-a59864 (judge where the Moscow times is actually written, and the trillion dollar budget behind it) 95.215.189.12 , talos say it is NL but 404 my other queries

I agree that evil Putie might well be secretly subverting aspects of our society. So find the evidence you spooks, that's what you are supposed to do - you are not supposed to implement old soviet techniques upon our western 'free press' until the Russians are actually better and more open than us. (by some measures, not nudges)

[JohnFen]

Re: it is all about the nudges

"many of you have been led a bit astray by the deliberate cluster 'nudges' "

I don't understand what you're referring to here.

[M.V. Lipvig]

Re: it is all about the nudges

Why do I have the feeling that Michael is invariably proven wrong, every time, by the end of the show? Allowing a person to openly question approved policy, then proving them wrong is used routinely in propaganda. It lets people hear their own questions about a policy, followed by why the questioning is wrong, to set people's mind at ease about it. Works great on the weak minded.

[Anonymous Coward]

As part of a reasonably organised police state

or any other reasonably organised (police) state...