Yesterday we’ve started getting messages, that anarchists’ Vkontakte public group “Pramen” is unavailable for Belarusian and Russian IPs. In both cases there are references to normative legal acts (by Roskomnadzor in Russia and Ministry of Information in Belarus).
This was to be expected. Recall, since the creation of our initiative (December, 2015) the materials of our website (pramen.io), groups in Vkontakte, Facebook, Twitter, and the mirror of the site: pramenofanarchy.wordpress.com were officially considered extremist in Belarus. Now the active phase – access restriction has begun. The option of blocking, of course, was provided by the Vkontakte administration (this social network belongs to the Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov), and it was implemented by the request of the Belarusian authorities.
It is not an accident that our public was blocked right now. After the beginning of the “anti-parasite” protests, the number of our subscribers began to grow rapidly, and today it has exceeded 2,000 people. We were providing our readers with daily news about protests in Belarus, giving analytical materials, spreading information about anarchist actions, and were trying to provide online broadcasts. Our initiative was actively covered by mainstream media. All this definitely caused irritation and fear among the controlling structures (Ministry of Information is not the main one, without doubts, it’s KGB that stands behind the blockings), that see anarchist media as a threat to their power and domination of the ruling class. The baton of censorship is set in motion and there is no doubt that it will be used again and again. The success achieved by radical youth during the last protests can’t be forgiven. In front of punitive institutions our movement has begun to grow actively and gain popularity among the people. As a consequence, the authorities started to attack anarchists on all fronts: in the streets, on the Internet and by zombie-tv broadcasting. And the blocking of our public group should be regarded precisely as one of the elements of this planned attack.
However, we still have ways to resist blocking and censorship. They are simple and accessible; you just have to spend a little time.
First of all, our public group is still available through Tor Browser and VPN, so we highly recommend you learn these tools. After all, today it’s a political site that is being blocked, and tomorrow some “morality commission” will find an anti-social site with a specific humor, an “incorrect” presentation of the history of Belarus, “extremist” music, erotic content, or inspectors will decide that your favorite movie promotes suicide and drug addiction. There have already been precedents in Belarus. The scope of banned sources will constantly expand, so the earlier you master the tools of anonymity, the longer you will enjoy the content that you want, but not the ones that were allowed by ideologists and security officers.
To learn more about bypassing of blocked sites: https://pramenofanarchy.files.wordpress.com/2017/03/boremsia-s-bezopasnym-internetom.pdf
Secondly, subscribe to our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pramenofanarchy/
and twitter http://twitter.com/pramenofanarchy. These social networks still are being controlled less than Vkontakte by the Belarusian special services.
Thirdly, you can bookmark the mirror of our site on WordPress: https://pramenofanarchy.wordpress.com/
It’s not much inferior to the site pramen.io by its functionality.
And we are available in Vkontakte at the new address: https://vk.com/pramenby/. Subscribe and tell about it to your friends! In this way you will really help us to stop the attempts of KGB and officials to mute the anarchist movement.
Information will be free, whether the lackeys of this regime want it or not. The headway can’t be stopped, and instead of every blocked page there we’ll create new ones. With your help we will overcome any censorship. Let the ray of freedom shines upon you!
Pramen (“The Ray”) collective.
