Freedom of speech. Allowing individuals to express themselves about every possible subject without governmental interference. It is something very normal in most countries across the globe. However, in countries like North Korea and Russia, it is not so obvious. This has not only been a problem during the reign of Vladimir Putin, but also during the reigns of his several precessors like Stalin, Yeltsin and Lenin. Since the invasion of Ukraine, more and more news sites and social media get blocked by the Kremlin and could even lead to an imprisonment of up to 15 years (Troianovski & Safronova, 2022).
During the past decades, Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 were introduced to let individuals read and write content on the internet. With the introduction of Web 3.0, companies are also trying to give back the ownership of the posted content. At least in Western countries. This development won’t be visible in Russia very soon. With the increased chance of an economic crisis in Russia due to economic sanctions of Western countries, and the Ukrainian army winning back their cities, the Kremlin won’t allow freedom of speech anytime soon. This legislation should in the end prevent the Russian inhabitants revolting against their leader (Troianovski & Safronova, 2022).
To gain access to banned information platforms, Russians are using increasingly more VPN networks. Companies like Surfshark and ExpressVPN have noticed significant increases in VPN usage in particular in Sri Lanka, but also in Russia. Also in conquered parts of the Ukraine, internet traffic is getting diverted via Russia, after which an increase of 3.500% in VPN subscriptions was noticed since February 24th (CNBCTV18, 2022).
A possible solution next to the VPN subscriptions, might be internet satellites like those from Starlink. SpaceX, a company of Elon Musk has recently invested 80 million dollars into satellite receivers in the Ukraine (RTL, 2022). Hopefully sometime in the near future, freedom of speech, both online and offline, will be possible for all people around the world. However, this will be very difficult to achieve with leaders like Putin.
References
CNBCTV18. (2022, October 7). VPN demand surges across the world finds report. Retrieved 9 October 2022, from https://www.cnbctv18.com/technology/vpn-demand-surges-across-the-world-finds-report-14890111.htm
RTL Nieuws. (2022, October 4). Musk: Oekraïne kreeg voor 80 miljoen aan Starlink-schotels. Retrieved 9 October 2022, from https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/tech/artikel/5337356/elon-musk-oekraine-ukraine-starlink-spacex
Troianovski, A. & Safronova, V. (2022, March 3). Russia takes censorship to new extremes, stifling war coverage. Retrieved 6 October 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/world/europe/russia-censorship-media-crackdown.html
