Ask HN: Would it be helpful for websites to geofence Russia? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Would it be helpful for websites to geofence Russia?

2 pointsRenaud3 comments

I am wondering what would be the impact of having sites worldwide present specific informational pages to requests originating from Russia?

It could be a way to provide information about the actions of their government to the Russian population, whose main source of information is basically propaganda, as there are almost no alternatives? (Russia ranks close to the bottom of the Press Freedom Index).

Something that remains factual, why most of the world is sanctioning Russia, what is impacted, what are the casualties of war so far, etc.

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> Russia ranks close to the bottom of the Press Freedom Index

Yes, there are independent mass media, but almost none left on TV or radio.

> whose main source of information is basically propaganda, as there are almost no alternatives?

Social media and other free platforms, no matter how much I dislike the ad-driven near-monopolies, appears to be right now the only way people find 'unofficial' information about the war and express their sentiment by e.g. sharing Hitler quotes with attribution at the end (drawing stark parallels with Putin's speeches).

Russian gov is understandably being dissatisfied with that, and the infrastructure to censor Internet like China does does not appear to be in place. What seems probable in near term is disconnection of Russia. (At Russian government’s initiative, if that is not clear.)

As a Russian, I say do what you will but please do not load a shitload of JS that will make vital information take ages to load on increasingly brittle connections.

That's pretty dumb idea, actually. Russians mostly use local sites. To get to them you need to use either mega-services that all the world uses like YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Google News or TikTok or post on those local sites directly.

Geofencing or network disconnects would turn liberal part of the population, that actually uses foreign sites inside the country, and thus knows the truth of the events already, against you instead, meaning you will actually _help_ Putin giving him more pretexts to use and supporters to rely on. If you aren't planning that in the first place, because it seems rather obvious if you think about it even a little.

Russia needs more unbridled Internet, not less.

Yes, I think it is a good idea. Putin is failing in informational war. He does think about it as a war, and he is losing it in Russia. I expect him to change his strategy of fighting "west lies" in any case. And the more difficulties he faces the more mistakes he does, and the more costly solutions he chooses.

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