russian

Telegram 開始跟俄羅斯政府合作

雖然路透社的標題寫的像是俄羅斯政府是因為放棄封鎖 Telegram，不過讀一下內文就會發現完全不一樣：「Russia lifts ban on Telegram messaging app after failing to block it」。

報導上看起來是俄羅斯政府說 Telegram 會與政府合作打擊恐怖份子，所以解封 (先不要管「恐怖主義」之類的詞，這常常是打擊異己時用的詞彙)：

Some Russian media cast the move as a capitulation, but communications watchdog Roskomnadzor said it had acted because the app’s Russian founder, Pavel Durov, was prepared to cooperate in combating terrorism and extremism on the platform.

“Roskomnadzor is dropping its demands to restrict access to Telegram messenger in agreement with Russia’s general prosecutor’s office,” it said in a statement.

現在的重點會在於 Telegram 會不會解釋，以及解釋的內容 (目前是還沒有)：

There was no immediate reaction from Telegram or Durov.

因為劇本有可能是 1) Telegram 根本沒跟俄羅斯政府接觸，純粹是俄羅斯政府想搞 Telegram，或是 2) 有接觸，但談的跟報導的差很多，或是 3) 就是 Telegram 放棄掙扎了。

後續的 Telegram 回應會是重點，另外 end-to-end encryption (E2E Encryption) 的承諾會有什麼樣的變化也會是重點。

我猜測比較可能的應該是有合作，但控制權在 Telegram 手上，並不是直接讓俄羅斯政府碰 Telegram 的內部系統，不過一切都還得等後續的消息才能確認...

ExpressVPN 在土耳其的 VPN server 被抄...

ExpressVPN 在土耳其的 VPN server 被抄，為了調查大使的刺殺案件：「VPN Server Seized to Investigate Russian Ambassador’s Assassination」。

A VPN server operated by ExpressVPN was seized by Turkish authorities to investigate the assassination of Andrei Karlov, the Russian Ambassador to Turkey. Authorities hoped to find more information on people who removed digital traces of the assassin, but the server in question held no logs.

ExpressVPN 官方的回覆在「ExpressVPN statement on Andrey Karlov investigation」，主要的部份是：

As we stated to Turkish authorities in January 2017, ExpressVPN does not and has never possessed any customer connection logs that would enable us to know which customer was using the specific IPs cited by the investigators. Furthermore, we were unable to see which customers accessed Gmail or Facebook during the time in question, as we do not keep activity logs. We believe that the investigators’ seizure and inspection of the VPN server in question confirmed these points.

至於是不是真的，就需要時間確認了...

俄羅斯在英國脫歐的議題上，也利用 Social Network 的廣告影響民意

TechCrunch 上看到的，俄羅斯政府不只在美國選舉時這樣做，同時也在英國脫歐公投的議題上進行操作：「Twitter says Russians spent ~$1k on six Brexit-related ads」。

不過金額比美國選舉時小了很多：

In response to the Commission’s request for information concerning Russian-funded campaign activity conducted during the regulated period for the June 2016 EU Referendum (15 April to 23 June 2016), Twitter reviewed referendum-related advertising on our platform during the relevant time period.

Among the accounts that we have previously identified as likely funded from Russian sources, we have thus far identified one account—@RT_com— which promoted referendum-related content during the regulated period. $1,031.99 was spent on six referendum-related ads during the regulated period.

With regard to future activity by Russian-funded accounts, on 26 October 2017, Twitter announced that it would no longer accept advertisements from RT and Sputnik and will donate the $1.9 million that RT had spent globally on advertising on Twitter to academic research into elections and civil engagement. That decision was based on a retrospective review that we initiated in the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Elections and following the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that both RT and Sputnik have attempted to interfere with the election on behalf of the Russian government. Accordingly, @RT_com will not be eligible to use Twitter’s promoted products in the future.

俄羅斯展現「錢要花在刀口上」的功力？

TechCrunch 這篇「Trump and Clinton spent $81M on US election Facebook ads, Russian agency $46K」講到 Facebook 目前階段所判斷出來，能夠識別是俄羅斯政府投入的資金，只有 USD$46K，相較於美國兩黨投入了 USD$81M 差了 1760 倍：

While there might have been other Russian disinformation groups, the IRA spent $46,000 on pre-election day Facebook ads compared to $81 million spent by Clinton and Trump together, discluding political action committees who could have spent even more than that on the campaigns’ behalf.

而俄羅斯投入的廣告散佈率超過 1.26 億的 Facebook 使用者，以及 2000 萬 Instagram 的使用者：

Facebook today said that the Russians still reached 126 million Facebook users, as well as 20 million Instagram users.

俄羅斯這團隊的水準真不賴... 只可惜大概沒辦法寫在 resume 上。

聽證會的資料可以從「Hearings」這邊看到。

Google 計畫關閉在俄羅斯的 Engineering Office

路透社丟出來的新聞：「Google to close engineering office in Russia: WSJ」。

新通過的法案要求俄羅斯人的資料必須存放在俄羅斯境內，這個法案被懷疑是 Google 打算直接關閉俄羅斯的 Engineering Office 的原因：

In July, Russia's parliament passed a law to force Internet sites that store the personal data of Russian citizens to do so inside the country, a move the Kremlin says is for data protection but which critics see as an attack on social networks.

來看看後續發展...