Media companies are sneaking back into Russia’s closed internet

Future. Western media and tech companies are setting up workarounds to Russia’s heavy censorship of the internet inside the country. These backdoors are giving ordinary Russian citizens the ability to see what’s really happening in Ukraine… and may demonstrate that the flow of information is one of the most potent tools in war.

The truth is out there…
And it wants back inside Russia.

• The New York Times, BBC News, Twitter, and Facebook have all set up Tor onion services that allow citizens in Russia to work around the Kremlin’s internet surveillance and censorship in order to access the sites.
• BBC News also set up a portal to its site through the Psiphon censorship circumvention tool.
• BBC News and Voice of America also launched shortwave radio frequencies to broadcast news in Ukraine and parts of Russia.

Additionally, Russian citizens have been using VPNs (virtual private networks that encrypt internet traffic and evade location bans) to access Western media. In Russia, demand for VPNs increased by 1,092% the day after the government blocked Facebook. In Ukraine, VPN demand went up 609% after the invasion started.

Speaking of Ukraine, Elon Musk sent over 1,500 satellite receivers for his Starlink internet service, with an additional 5,000 more on the war. That helps the country stay connected even if cell towers and internet landlines are destroyed.