110 countries under supervision: Russia and China export technologies for surveillance and censorship

Russia and China are spreading their information control models, surveillance and censorship technologies to 110 countries that have acquired or copied them. This is stated in the new report “The World Wide Web of Russian and Chinese Information Control” by the American Open Technology Fund, writes “Currently,«.

Фото: Depositphotos

Information control is most effective in countries with hybrid and authoritarian regimes with ties to China or Russia. Information control technologies, information management methods and relevant laws are being actively implemented in the countries of the Belt and Road Initiative (Chinese model) and the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States (Russian model).

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Over about 13 years of the export of information and control tools by China and Russia, the characteristics of the technologies distributed have changed significantly: if at first mainly coarse censorship and surveillance tools were delivered abroad, then later the technologies became much more advanced. The report mentions the massive supply of CCTV cameras with face recognition technology, a huge assortment of digital equipment research tools, smart card ID cards, smart databases for authorities, smart city technologies.

The author of the report, Valentin Weber, notes that there is no simple answer to these actions on the part of democracies: including because it is difficult to prevent the spread of dual-use technologies and techniques, besides, democracies themselves willingly acquire equipment for control over the dissemination of information.

Democracies, Weber notes, should also work to ensure that the personal devices and communications channels used by citizens are better protected from filtering and surveillance equipment, although the situation is now “exactly the opposite.”

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The author of the report mentions a law recently passed in Australia that extends the monitoring of traffic and restricts end-to-end encryption of messages — a step more characteristic of an authoritarian state.

The situation with freedom of speech and human rights in the world is deteriorating, the report says. According to the author, “democratic states must prevent the spread of authoritarian approaches to the use of technology and show the world that it is possible to fight crime and ensure national security without compromising cybersecurity and the privacy of citizens on the Internet.”

ForumDaily previously wrote how recalled From Russia, a CIA spy has been transmitting classified information to the United States for decades. Also, ex-partner of US President Donald Trump Felix Seter collaborated with US intelligence agencies. He revealed the plan of assassination attempt on Bush Jr. and collected data on Russian oligarchs and terrorist groups.

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