The lust to control

Internet restrictions grip is tightening in Russia. I’ve been reading about mobile operators developing DPI (deep packet inspection) systems back in 2017. Now it feels like these systems are being actively implemented and adjusted with every operator out there. I think it is a natural conclusion for a certain governmental inclines combined with the growth of new technologies around the world. In fact many countries use DPI and block internet resources and apps, like messengers.

 Current events in Russia like drone attacks are the major pretext to implement internet restrictions as tight as possible. They say that bad actors are actively using local internet providers to coordinate their attacks. They also say that foreign countries use to spy, handout info and push their agendas through many apps and websites like the biggest social networks everyone knows about. Hence they need to actively cut off the RU net from the outside world and control every bit of data passing around. I’m not saying that the statements above are not true, the point is in how it is being handled. I think the agenda is always the control. In this case it happened to be influences from the outside. In some sense this war-like environment is perfect for the authorities to grow a maximum controlled state. 

At first they started locking out certain resources from usage. Sounds reasonable, if you don’t want people to use scams, narcotics stores or extreme content resources. Then they started to cut off bigger websites that are not necessarily extreme on the outside, but were classified as such for some internal or political reasons. You will never see the direct evidence explanations. They are talking about cyber espionage, military, political and economical agendas that are not so blatant for us to postulate that they even exist in a scientific sense. This is more like your parent calmly saying to you not to hang out with this guy or go outside after 9 while casually locking you inside a room.

Then they implement shadow degradation or throttling of certain common resources, like very popular social networks. Such resources become barely usable. This can be seen upon traffic packets inspection - certain packets are notoriously slow, missing or modified. You might imagine these DPI systems are not stable either, they may miss packets, become clogged and fail in other ways. The end result is the connection of very bad quality. Everything of course has a legal basis. Though this is more like an ability for the government to do certain things based on carefully constructed legal documents, rather than any direct agreements understandable for the average person. 

The scenario goes like this. They try another measure like a white-list mode for the internet. There is almost no internet for an hour, no credit cards working, online businesses are on hang. Everybody is pissed off.  Only a curated list of resources is available, while absolutely everything else is blocked. No VPN will save you from such a scenario. This lasts for a while, then they turn it off. 

Then they explain it via some official in the media, that the change is like a measure to counter current threats from the outside. Eg. They claim that the evil forces are using it to communicate. The official goblin doesn’t even have to be an expert in the field, cause you might guess it is a multi ultra level bureaucracy anyway. The measure was probably implemented by a different archmage authority, often without double checks, and of course with no prior agreements with the peasants being affected after all. May be some order from the military side. God knows who implemented what and pulled the trigger before another official speaking on some internet media resource. This thing happens over and over again, for 2 hours, 6, 12, 24 etc. After a while people give up and comply. It becomes a norm. The next logical step is obvious. The permanent mode.

Russian people are very well trained to give up every peace of sovereignty. I’ve seen it over the years, and I think I understand it somehow. Cause you barely have any leverage over the huge bureaucratic power machine. The apparatus is so big, that it has no single point of failure. You can go and complain, but you will complain to a random people who are just sitting 9 to 6 at some gov job. It is not like you have a direct link to the source of all your troubles. It is like you are going to complain to the place, but you can never be sure of their working hours. And if they happen to be working, you know that you will stand in turn for the good half of your day Then you’ll meet an angry woman at the desk, who may or may not have a clue of what’s going on. She will almost certainly not be willing to help you. Then you will be redirected to another authority with the same or slightly different environment and so on. This is the type of wall you’re hitting. And remember, the people gravitating towards power are often constructive, enduring and meticulous in their efforts to control, ie a ‘Capricorn’ nature. These are the best in keeping their grip over what they possess too.

Things that were going on in Russia during 90s are insane. Back in those times the bureaucratic many-headed Zmei Gorynych was so chaotic that you would naturally give up in any attempt to fix this part of your life. Unless you were aiming high to the very ladder and had friends with guns. As you might imagine this machine is not always working in the interest of the people. In fact it is a common understanding that certain things are just naturally done via corruption. For example if some bridge is under construction, you can be almost certain, that the construction will go for years and years, and some authorities are likely mining your taxes at the very moment to buy a personal car or a house. In such territory there is no leverage at all. They are going to use the power they possess to deceive you that nothing is going on, intimidate you, do everything they could to continue the things the way they do. This process goes like a clockwork. Some things and methods are so successful that they survived from the ancient times to this day and will likely strive forever.

Today they are targeting VPNs and other ways to bypass internet restrictions as if it is a war with an enemy among the allies. The organism attacking its own cells. And every now and then some clown suggestion comes from some official to cut the internet completely, or to close everyone down, just like this. Such person is usually not an expert in the field. They look like either a scapegoat for harsh decisions or like they are trying to butter up their lords. Then the thing is implemented.

Today I witnessed a business conversation between 2 people. They complained about failing to contact each other. How they are not able to use their messenger app anymore because it stopped loading. One of them also used some VPN that stopped functioning. They obviously knew why it was happening. And what was the conclusion? If you think of the lawmakers, they are not too mindless to throttle all the messengers. They likely understand the need to communicate somehow. May be they used to call their grandma in another city via the messenger app. So they try to push a local alternative messenger app as if it is a worthy solution. Someone is making money from this of course. Sounds like a win-win. But these people have no clue of the quality and the personal choice. The local messenger likely spies on your every step too. It was probably done under duress in a year, by poor hopgoblins who where actively flogged with a knout. We are comparing this to apps that exist for more than a decade. We discovered an inconvenient alternative in an unnecessary situation. So these business people I’ve heard today concluded that they are going to reach each other over this local app next time. It was like this: “Although I don’t like it at all, it seems that I’ll need to use it”. And the world moves on.

I honestly do not see any light at the end of this tunnel. The more I know about things going on in some places in the world and around myself, the more normal and alien at the same time it becomes to me. I honestly not sure at this point whether the majority of people are being pissed with the restrictions and whether they care about certain values. Probably not. I’m starting to see it as a natural tendency for this little planet that we surf through the cosmos. This normalization sounds like the exact death mechanism that gives up all the sovereignty. See you gradually in a tightly controlled "anti utopia". Au revoir.