Week in Review: November 18, 2016

Russia Blocks LinkedIn

On Nov. 17, Russia’s communications authority Roskomnadzor informed the media that within the next twenty-four hours, LinkedIn would be blocked in the country. LinkedIn, a social network for business professionals, was recently acquired by Microsoft for $26.2 billion. Russian Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were forced to comply in the time frame or else they faced severe fines and potentially blocks of service in the country. On Nov. 18, any attempt to access the LinkedIn website via MTS, Vimpelcom, and other Russian telecoms were met with a restricted access message. In October, LinkedIn was found by Russian courts to have violated a 2014 law passed by Vladimir Putin that required social networks with Russian users to store at least six months of data on servers on Russian soil. The company’s appeal in Moscow City Court on Nov. 10 was rejected. According to the Kremlin, the purpose of the law is to ensure that data on Russian consumers is protected. LinkedIn was being investigated in particular due to the millions of LinkedIn passwords that were hacked in 2012. The Kremlin denies any practice of online censorship. The Washington Post reports that the law was a response to the growing power of social media in aiding the organization of political dissidence in Russia. Internet expert and blogger Anton Nossik told Reuters that “the aim of this law is to create (another) quasi-legal pretext to close Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and all other services.” Author of “The Red Web: The Struggle Between Russia’s Digital Dictators and New Online Revolutionaries” Andrei Soldatov stated that the purpose of the law is surveillance, which would allow the Russian government to take down political dissidence. There are over 6 million registered LinkedIn users in Russia. Soldatov claims that the modest size of the company allows it to set an example for the data localization. Although LinkedIn rarely contains any political activity on the site, the blocking of LinkedIn in the country establishes a precedent for a new restrictive environment in Russia. At the moment, Facebook and Twitter store their user data out of the country and Apple and Google have complied with Russia’s requests.

Facebook Expands Free Basics and the Walled Garden of Internet

According to Facebook’s latest Q3 earnings call, the company’s Free Basics Internet service has helped 40 million people get online. The company has announced that it will be expanding its Free Basics internet service to Americans, as it continues to push adoption in other countries around the world. Originally known as Internet.org, Free Basics aims to give people, without internet, access to a select group of websites, including Messenger and Wikipedia, at no charge. However, the company has received criticism for its curation of specific online services in the program. Essentially, Wired argues that the Internet should not just be Facebook for low-income consumers. There are a number of potential harms associated with the Walled Garden that Free Basics would create. Through Free Basics, Wired contends that Facebook is able to control the free flow of information and exercise censorship over content. Foreign Policy notes that the collaborations with governments to expand Free Basics should give the public pause. It creates a two-tiered Internet, that gives dictators “a version of the Internet they can influence, if not totally control.” According to Mashable, there is a huge need for an unrestricted Internet among poor