Mozilla, the maker of the popular web browser Firefox, said it received government demands to block add-ons that circumvent censorship.
The Mozilla Foundation, the entity behind the web browser Firefox, is blocking various censorship circumvention add-ons for its browser, including ones specifically to help those in Russia bypass state censorship. The add-ons were blocked at the request of Russia’s federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor — the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media — according to a statement by Mozilla to The Intercept.
“Following recent regulatory changes in Russia, we received persistent requests from Roskomnadzor demanding that five add-ons be removed from the Mozilla add-on store,” a Mozilla spokesperson told The Intercept in response to a request for comment. “After careful consideration, we’ve temporarily restricted their availability within Russia. Recognizing the implications of these actions, we are closely evaluating our next steps while keeping in mind our local community.”
“It’s a kind of unpleasant surprise because we thought the values of this corporation were very clear in terms of access to information.”
Stanislav Shakirov, the chief technical officer of Roskomsvoboda, a Russian open internet group, said he hoped it was a rash decision by Mozilla that will be more carefully examined.
“It’s a kind of unpleasant surprise because we thought the values of this corporation were very clear in terms of access to information, and its policy was somewhat different,” Shakirov said. “And due to these values, it should not be so simple to comply with state censors and fulfill the requirements of laws that have little to do with common sense.”
Developers of digital tools designed to get around censorship began noticing recently that their Firefox add-ons were no longer available in Russia.
On June 8, the developer of Censor Tracker, an add-on for bypassing internet censorship restrictions in Russia and other former Soviet countries, made a post on the Mozilla Foundation’s discussion forums saying that their extension was unavailable to users in Russia.
The developer of another add-on, Runet Censorship Bypass, which is specifically designed to bypass Roskomnadzor censorship, posted in the thread that their extension was also blocked. The developer said they did not receive any notification from Mozilla regarding the block.
Two VPN add-ons, Planet VPN and FastProxy — the latter explicitly designed for Russian users to bypass Russian censorship — are also blocked. VPNs, or virtual private networks, are designed to obscure internet users’ locations by routing users’ traffic through servers in other countries.
The Intercept verified that all four add-ons are blocked in Russia. If the webpage for the add-on is accessed from a Russian IP address, the Mozilla add-on page displays a message: “The page you tried to access is not available in your region.” If the add-on is accessed with an IP address outside of Russia, the add-on page loads successfully.
Supervision of Communications
Roskomnadzor is responsible for “control and supervision in telecommunications, information technology, and mass communications,” according to the Russia’s federal censorship agency’s English-language page.
In March, the New York Times reported that Roskomnadzor was increasing its operations to restrict access to censorship circumvention technologies such as VPNs. In 2018, there were multiple user reports that Roskomnadzor had blocked access to the entire Firefox Add-on Store.
According to Mozilla’s Pledge for a Healthy Internet, the Mozilla Foundation is “committed to an internet that includes all the peoples of the earth — where a person’s demographic characteristics do not determine their online access, opportunities, or quality of experience.” Mozilla’s second principle in their manifesto says, “The internet is a global public resource that must remain open and accessible.”
The Mozilla Foundation, which in tandem with its for-profit arm Mozilla Corporation releases Firefox, also operates its own VPN service, Mozilla VPN. However, it is only available in 33 countries, a list that doesn’t include Russia.
The same four censorship circumvention add-ons also appear to be available for other web browsers without being blocked by the browsers’ web stores. Censor Tracker, for instance, remains available for the Google Chrome web browser, and the Chrome Web Store page for the add-on works from Russian IP addresses. The same holds for Runet Censorship Bypass, VPN Planet, and FastProxy.
“In general, it’s hard to recall anyone else who has done something similar lately,” said Shakirov, the Russian open internet advocate. “For the last few months, Roskomnadzor (after the adoption of the law in Russia that prohibits the promotion of tools for bypassing blockings) has been sending such complaints about content to everyone.”
TIL that Mozilla is a Russian company.
But seriously why the hell would Mozilla be obliged to acknowledge this request? Do they have offices in Russia?
Roskomnadzor has regulartory authority in Russia. Roskomnadzor has the legal authority to regulate communications technology within Russia. They are completely within their rights to enforce this within Russia, regardless of what people living in other countries think about it, and organizations operating within Russia are legally bound to abide by the Russian government's regulations within Russia, just as they are in every other country.
Sure, and they can regulate it by blocking access to Mozilla. That’d be within their authority.
That doesn’t mean Mozilla has to answer to them. Mozilla would be within their rights to ignore Roskomnador.
Whether they should is another matter but they don’t have to respond.
If Russia blocks security updates, that's worse for Russian users than having to go to GitHub to install a plugin.
They still have to go through court. Mozilla is proactive here.
Are you implying that if my office isn't in a certain country, that means my software doesn't have to obey that country's regulatory agencies?
I mean… yes? Generally laws only apply within the borders of their jurisdiction.
What, are the Russian police going to come to the US and arrest the CEO of Mozilla Corporation?
The laws of a country apply to the activity of a company that is operating within that country, regardless of what that company considers its home country.
That’s kind of an important detail there… as far as I know Mozilla does not operate within Russia.
Do they distribute a Russian version of their software to Russian citizens?
Does it matter, unless there’s an agreement that says the US (or some other place where Mozilla actually operates) will enforce Russian law?
Of course it matters. Firefox will be blocked in Russia and could be considered illegal to use within Russia. Guess why Mozilla is doing what they're doing here. It's better for Russians to have access to Firefox than not, and if done right it could still allow for those censorship avoiding addons in some way, which is what we all want. If Firefox is blocked and illegal in Russia, the situation for those trying to avoid the censorship would be much worse.
Is it?
If it can help them get around the censorship, absolutely.
But it can't. That's the entire point. Removing the tools to do so. It's the exact same either way except Firefox is bending a knee in one case
Not hard to predict that Russia would block Firefox downloads where possible from the Russian Internet. Did you really not consider that?
That's kind of the Russian law, yes. Russians can even hack people and steal all their data and money as long as they're not Russians or in Russia. It's a legit business model over there.
That's what I've been scratching my head about too. What leverage does Russia have to force them to do this? What consequences could they impose for non-compliance?
Does Mozilla own property in Russia? Sell it or write it off, then ignore the censorship request.
Do they have employees who live or have family in Russia? Either fire them or help them move, then ignore the censorship request.
None of the above? Perhaps it is we who need to fire Mozilla then.
TIL it's better to withdraw Firefox from Russia completely than to comply with their shitty regulators
Withdraw like Durov withdrawed telegram. He did withdraw, right? Right?
Also it seems they blocked addons before court decision.
I'm referring to Firefox being banned which they obviously would be. Since they would be choosing to be banned I said withdraw because I mistakenly thought people could figure out obvious consequences
Banned though legal system or banned because rkn can? If first, then Mozilla should not have done anything before court decision. If second, then Mozilla should not have done anything because it made easier for rkn to ban them.
I don't pretend to know how the Russians do shit internally but we do know for sure they will censor things they want to if at all possible. The means to do it aren't all that important because they will find a way.
If Mozilla refused to comply, Russia would block Firefox from their Internet, thereby completing the monopoly status of chrome in Russia which is bad for a lot of reasons.
You can pretend to understand everything and that principles are more important than reality if you want though.
Imo yes it would, because then it wouldn't be hidden censorship, it would be noticeable to even the average joe and ways around it would become more widespread.
No browser should be censoring any content, if a country wants to block something they should be forced to do it themselves, which would be more visible to the public.
People like you don't care about unintended consequences. You don't even consider that they could exist
The browser doesn't censor anything.