INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A United States -backed campaign is giving Russians access to anti-censor software to dodge Moscow's crackdown on dissent against its
invasion of Ukraine, involved groups told AFP.Russia has intensified its restrictions on independent media since attacking its neighbor in
February, with journalists under threat of prosecution for criticizing the invasion or for even referring to it as a war.The U.S
.government-backed Open Technology Fund is paying out money to a handful of American firms providing virtual private networks (VPNs) free of
Russia since the invasion."Our tool is primarily used by people trying to access independent media, so that funding by the OTF has been
absolutely critical," said a spokesman for Lantern, one of the involved companies.Tech firms Psiphon and nthLink have also been providing
sophisticated anti-censorship applications to people in Russia, with OTF estimating that some 4 million users in Russia have received VPNs
from the firms.Psiphon saw a massive surge in Russian users, with the number soaring from about 48,000 a day prior to the Feb
24 invasion to more than a million a day by mid-March, said a company senior advisor Dirk Rodenburg.The firm's tools in Russian now
average nearly 1.5 million users daily, he added.While some, like Ukraine's leadership, have called for Russia to be cut off from the
wide web, to keep resistance going," said Natalia Krapiva, tech legal counsel at rights group Access Now, which is not involved in the OTF
effort."All kinds of initiatives are happening and to keep them alive you need the internet because you can't gather in person, or because
activists are scattered around the world," she added.Keeping VPNs running and accessible was relatively straightforward in the early days of
the war, said Lucas, the spokesman for Lantern, who spoke on condition that only his first name be used."They weren't ready to block
"Over time, Russia learned how to block the easy stuff but Lantern and Psiphon are still up and running."Lesson from China, MyanmarCensors
try to cut VPN software off from servers they rely on to function or stop people from getting to websites where the tools can be
downloaded.As a result, crackdowns on internet freedom typically result in people sharing VPNs through guerrilla tactics such as
word-of-mouth.However, groups like Lantern have adopted methods like hiding VPN installers in online platforms too vital for the government
to block, and building a network so users can share the technology with others, Lucas said."Lantern and Psiphon are different in that we do
all sorts of much more sophisticated stuff to hide our traffic and get around our servers being detected," he said.People in Russia are
benefitting from the VPN makers honing their tools while battling censorship in countries such as China and Myanmar."There was a moment
about two years ago when China really upped the level of their game, when it came to the lengths they were going to block stuff," Lucas
the operations since costs jumped and revenue vanished for VPN makers in Russia, as sanctions kicked in and companies pulled out of the
country.OTF said it typically spends $3-4 million annually funding VPNs, but that figure was ramped up due to censorship in Russia.Psiphon
has been receiving United States government funding for more than 14 years, with the money generally going to improve tools to counter new
tactics used by authoritarian regimes, the company told AFP.Despite the efforts to get VPN technology to those who want it, many people
still don't have access."The use of virtual private networks and other methods have increased significantly in Russia, but it still only
represents a small percentage of the population," Krapiva, from Access Now, told AFP.
