Quote Originally Posted by fortheether View Post
Hanna,
Are you saying the law is not for real?

Scott
After reading what Dmitry Khomitchuk said (who after all has a personal interest in this), I am saying that the impact of the law is probably exaggerated. There is a propaganda war against Belarus so it's natural that something like this is used.

Lots of countries have more internet monitoring and censorship than Belarus.
Australia, South Korea, France, Thailand and China to mention places where you might find yourself on holiday or business. You have more reason to worry there, than in Belarus.

In the USA you should start worrying about SOPA for example (own goal by Pavelov to link to an article about that, lol!)

This map is from Wikipedia's entry on internet censorship




Wikipedia quotes

Internet censorship in Australia currently consists of a regulatory regime under which the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has the power to enforce content restrictions on Internet content hosted within Australia, and maintain a "black-list" of overseas websites which is then provided for use in filtering software.
The FRA law (FRA-lagen in Swedish) is a Swedish legislative package that authorizes the state to warrantlessly wiretap all telephone and Internet traffic that crosses Sweden's borders.
Thailand: And year by year Internet censorship has grown, with its focus shifting to lèse majesté, national security, and political issues. Estimates put the number of websites blocked at over 110,000 and growing in 2010.[71]
But let's get to the bottom of this.

I have read the articles now, and just to re-assure myself, I'd like to ask anyone who is in Belarus to try three things:

1) Go to the most anti-government / anti-Lukashenko website you know of (in Russian) and make sure it is not blocked for you.
2) Go to a site that does not have a .by extension and check if you are able to buy something online. (I mean, don't actually buy anything, just check if it is possible to take the purchase up to the point of sale without actually buying.
3) Have you got unrestricted access to the site Vkontakte.ru?

If both these things are possible, then we have proved that the law is nothing to worry about.


And make no mistake - I hate internet monitoring and am all for a completely free internet. But it does not seem to me that the situation in Belarus sticks out as a big problem.