Bloomberg announces that Russia is creating a fresh network around its chosen superapplication. The app's name is Max. ‘Wkontakte’ is working on a state-controlled social network that would be a national news exchange service in Russia. This superapplicability is intended to bring together different services specified as payments or state services. Here the Russians would be serving as part of something like a Polish mCitizen. Finally, this application would besides include a communicator that would be unencrypted and open the way for full control of citizens. WhatsApp, which was blacklisted and would be blocked, would be banned. another Western social networking sites specified as Meta or Facebook and Instagram or X have a akin fate, while YouTube or TikTok have a limited scope.
Digital sovereignty objective
On the 1 hand, it is possible to talk about expanding control or even full digital surveillance of citizens, whose pretext is war, so it is not entirely wrong, and on the another hand, due to difficulties on the part of the West after February 2022, we are talking again about the pursuit of digital sovereignty of the country. And that's a subject that's not fresh, and it's been debated for a long time. And this would be based on what was the goal from the beginning – the thought of the country rejecting dependence on abroad technology companies and infrastructure. According to Bloomberg, the goal is the Chinese internet, which would mean that all digital activity takes place through universal applications and that the government has extended possibilities to monitor and control network activity. And since WPContact is controlled by Gazprom, Max's app would give considerable control over all aspects of the Russian network. Irina Borogan of the Centre for European Policy Analysis says that an improved Max would be an electronic police officer. Although this is no longer a novelty, it is common cognition that there are 3 spies at home: telephone, computer and TV.
Record number of exemptions
Some say there is simply a state of sieged fortress in Russia, while the authorities themselves will justify increased safety control, considering the continued shelling of Russia by Ukrainian forces and even information about attempts to assassinate president Putin. The fact is that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russia has increased the force on services it has little control over. The mobile net is besides blocked. During the first 27 days of July, a evidence number of mobile net exemptions were recorded. There were over 2500 of them, and in June only 654. This is where it was justified to prevent Ukraine from utilizing impact drones. Plus, you experimentation with turning off the app without turning off the full Internet. And the goal is to redirect activity to services managed by Wkontakte. Therefore, a law was introduced prohibiting the search for content considered extremist in the network.. As you can see, the tools adapted to the state of war are beginning to be improved, and alternatively of the "end of history", there will be a fresh era that will be marked either by the essential steps from the point of view of power, or by digital totalitarianism from the point of view of citizens who have long talked about the end of freedom on the Internet. This is not only about Russia, Belarus or China, but besides about the “free” West.
Bartłomiej Doborzyński
