State Control in the Internet and Bashed Blog-Uprise in Belarus

Everyone is guaranteed freedom of thoughts and beliefs and their free expression. No one shall be forced to express one’s beliefs or to deny them. No monopolization of the mass media by the State, public associations or individual citizens and no censorship shall be permitted. Article 33 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus

The Internet exists over frontiers and boundaries, it functions as a complicated open system of information transfer, which is rather chaotic than centralized. And of course this sphere of freedom is an eyesore for governments, corporations, conservative political and religious groups and secret services, who are eager to spread their control over it and/or get their profits from it. The individual could be easily tracked down in the Internet, if he or she doesn’t maneuvers in order to avoid the “omnipresent” control, such as switching off the IP or Tor.Moreover, neoliberal regulation in the Internet ruins social networks and establishes market principles in the sphere of media and information exchange, including news, as well as software, films and music download and usage, torrents trackers and file share.

Censorship in Belarus

Censorship in Belarus, although it is forbidden by the Constitution, exists not only in the form of the suppression of the freedom of speech, but also as limitation of the freedom of press, censorship in rock and pop music, film and theatre. Various laws were introduced in the country in order to undermine the right of freedom of speech, such as criminal laws, which state, that insulting the president is punishable by up to five years in prison, and that discrediting Belarus abroad is punishable by up to two years. It is not surprising, while Belarus has been often criticized for its repressive and authoritarian regime: the presidential election fraud is a common practice there, the independent journalists are repressed, and the economy is corrupt. The economics and politics are highly centralized and the executive authority is vested in the presidential office.

“Libel” is both a civil and a criminal offense of the authoritarian regime in Belarus, where the freedom of press is systematically curtailed. While state media are subordinated to the president, independent ones confront routine harassment and censorship. TV in Belarus is completely under the state control and does not provide coverage of alternative and opposition views. The State Press Committee issues warnings to publishers for unauthorized activities, such as distributing copies abroad and reporting on unregistered organizations; it can also arbitrarily shut down publications without a court order. The news releases and daily play lists of all FM radio stations are censored. The state-run press distribution monopoly refused in 2005 to continue distribution of most of the country’s independent newspapers, though it resumed distribution of limited copies of two popular publications, “Narodnaya Wolya” and “Nasha Niva”. Most of the independent magazines and journals lost their license.

There are several authors whose books are forbidden in Belarus. The prominent and internationally known journalist Svetlana Alexievich, who published several books about the concealed history of the Soviet totalitarianism, such as the Chernobyl catastrophe and Soviet-Afghan war, have to live in exile, while she was accused in Belarus for working for the CIA. The most widely read Belarusian author Vasil Bykov, antifascist and humanist, who was nominated for the Nobel prize, endured defamation under the rule of Lukashenka and had to leave the country as well. Published in 2009 novel “Paranoia” by Victor Martinovich, the first one Belarusian dystopia, criticizing a state with political regime, which resembles Belarus a lot, was forbidden in the country.

Famous dissident and prisoner of consciousness professor Yury Bandazhevsky, who made a research into the consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986, was imprisoned after he published reports criticizing the official data. His research alarmed the increase in heart diseases and birth anomalies among the children, born after the Chernobyl.

In recent years, censorship methods in the Internet have become increasingly sophisticated. There are various ways to hinder free circulation of information, such as blocked access to the websites, mirror or faked websites, filters and hidden censorship (such as the message saying “the connection failed” or “connection timeout”). All these measures are not new for Belarus, the country, where, following the “best traditions” of the Soviet totalitarianism, there is no observation of human rights and the freedom of press is rather limited. For instance, journalists writing for the opposition news website charter97.org received threats in July 2009 after the site posted an article about a racism case.It is impossible to control the Internet, this complicated and branchy rhizomatic open system, which tends to the self-development. In order to control it, one has to create by order of magnitude a more complicated system – a kind of the “Absolute” or the “God”. The absurd idea to control the Internet is an absolutistic idea. And it clearly illustrates the tendency of the political regime in Belarus to the absolutism and the pretensions of Lukashenka to get the omnipotence.

Following this inconceivable obsession, on February the 1st in 2010 the notorious decree “On Measures for Revising Usage of the National Segment of the World Wide Web”, was signed, it came in power on July 1st. It caused outrage and protests by journalists and human rights activists: according to the decree, the data of computers and mobile phones was subjected to control, and their exploitation has to be protocoled. The new decree was really harsh, it significantly limited the freedom for the Internet-users. It also allowed the officials to condemn journalists to the moral damage compensation for criticizing the authorities. The Internet censorship in Belarus was introduced by its authoritarian government about one year before the planned presidential elections. So, websites and the Internet-users became increasingly controlled by the special unit of the presidential administration.

Not by accidence, Lukashenka's last chief ideologist - Oleg Proleskowski - was recently appointed minister for the media. The decree is supported by the widespread propaganda campaign, for instance, the TV-channels broadcast the materials about the Internet security and the arrest of two hackers. In November 2010 the co-worker of the National state TV and Radio company in Minsk was fired because of uploading sarcastic anti-Lukashenka video on youtube.

Lukashenka’s decree was primarily aimed at blocking oppositional websites during the election campaign. The authorities in Belarus are willing to monitor, which websites and how often do visit the people in Belarus, what do they write in their e-mails, chats, messengers, social networks and webblogs. The special body, subjected to the presidential administration, has the right to control the private correspondence in the Internet. This penetration of the state into the inviolable autonomy of private life aims at establishing there the cult of the omnipresent penalizing control. It’s aim is to ruin the free space for self-reflection. Contrary to it, the control just provokes distrust to the authorities, leading either to the alienation from the political life or to the creation of the alternatives. Hopefully, that people, disillusioned with the state politics of control, will self-organize and create their own media, as it was already in 2006 during the last presidential elections and popular uprising caused by the fraud. Resisting the mass manipulation of the state media, the people created the news themselves, posting messages, photos and videos in the Internet. The role of the independent self-organized open news resource Indymedia Belarus (http: //belarus.indymedia.org) was especially important then for the alternative news coverage of the mass protests and networking.

The most disgusting part of the decree is a requirement to the providers of the Internet services to keep the record and to store information about the users in the special journals during 1 year. The attendance of the cyber-cafe is allowed with passport only. Such ultimate control over information in the Internet serves for monitoring traffic, rendering the Internet services, identifying users, who regularly visit the oppositional or independent media websites.

The decree also prohibits child porn, violent and extremist materials, giving the state free hand to function as a censor. The Internet-providers have to limit the access to the websites, containing materials about the extremist activities; illegal arms and drugs trade; assistance to the illegal immigration and human traffic; spread of pornography; propaganda of violence, cruelty and other forbidden by law activities. But the prohibitive legislature is used in Belarus mostly as the repressive measure against activists and independent journalists, instead of really fighting with the Internet-crime. For instance, such websites as the islamist Kavkazcenter.com, quite harmless islam.by and gay-chatroom gay.by are often temporary blocked in Belarus. In 2009 the LGBT activists and web-journalists from Belarus were accused of spreading child pornography on their website, which was a dull lie. The persecution of the pornography is not an invention of the authoritarian regime in Belarus, it rather corresponds with the Internet regulation praised by the forces of the new conservatism in the EU.

Corruption of Ethics

In order to justify this decree, the president Lukashenka publicly appeals to the morals and, as “the father of the nation”, heads up the war on child pornography, crime, illegal immigration and drugs. The censorship of the Internet is sanctioned as well by “the father of the souls of the nation”, the leader of the Orthodox church in Belarus, metropolitan Filaret. He mentioned, that it would be great to regulate the Internet “in accordance with the progressive Chinese experience”, in order to “save the youth from the influence of the immoral information”. Echoing his words, the head of the National writers’ union, such a mediocrity Nikolay Chegrinec justified the ban of the website in case if it is proclaimed to be “immoral”. But what’s behind the “political correctness” fever in the authoritarian-ruled country? In Belarus no one is allowed to criticize the authorities and the president himself. The responsibility for this “crime” is interpreted as the responsibility for the “moral damage”, which means, admittedly, that to criticize the authorities is “unmoral”. So, the moral values in Belarus were replaced by the virtue of the adherence to the authorities.

In December 2009 the special Committee on the Internet Crime, whose officials have the right to spy on the activities of the Internet-users, was created by Lukashenka. This administrative body is subjected to his authority exclusively.

The centralization of the Internet in Belarus is organized on the same principle as the centralization of the collective animal farm. It is made by the people who have hardly any clue about the character of Internet-communication. Anonymity and identity change present one of its aspects. The demand to register online information resources as printed newspapers and magazines and to identify their users could appear only in the minds of the control-freaks who studied journalism for the regional newspapers. Obsessed with the idea of total control, the ruling class in Belarus, so called “vertical”, demands further centralization. Which just proves, that they are off-springs of the Soviet elites, even more corrupted, than their predecessors.

In August 2007, while visiting "The Soviet Belarus" newspaper office (it is the leading newspaper in the country, the ideological organ of the presidential administration), A. Lukashenka said that "We have to stop the anarchy in the Internet". Belarusian TV followed him and showed propaganda films in the Soviet style discrediting free Internet and denouncing "Net Wars".

The Internet was regarded until now as the last sphere of freedom of expression in Belarus, the country, which already in 2006 was mentioned among 13 “enemies of the Internet" by the international media watchdog the Reporters Without Borders (RWB) - among Saudi Arabia, Myanmar, China, North Korea, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Uzbekistan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, and Vietnam. The abuse of the aforementioned decree could lead to the ban of the most of Belarusian news websites under a plausible excuse. De facto, Internet-providers in Belarus would be required to have a system analogous to the Russian SORM (System for Operative Investigative Activities, or Lawfully Authorized Electronic Surveillance, LAES). Belarus does not have systems monitoring the Internet traffic analogous to the Russian SORM-2, however, it is likely that the Belarusian and Russian secret services cooperate in this sphere. Over 70 % of the Internet traffic in Belarus goes through Russia and part of it is processed through the Russian system SORM-2. Some providers confirm that the authorities have unofficially requested that all user logins have to be kept for up to one month and turned over to the security services on their demand.

In accordance with the decree, the Internet-resources in Belarus will be controlled by a special service, the Operating and Analytical Centre (OAC) under Lukashenka’s Administration. As expected, the OAC has been appointed responsible for the ByNet. In fact, the controlling agency – the OAC was built over the state Internet operator Beltelecom and will control the Internet providers and registration of .BY domain names in the country. For the activities of the centre the budget of the country for 2010 provides over 3 mln. EUR (12 540 583 000 BLR).Off course, Internet-users will be also spied on: for instance, the workers of computer clubs and cyber-cafes must identify their customers. Information about user’s devices, personal data on the Internet-users and information about the rendered Internet services must be submitted upon request of state bodies, carrying out investigative activities, as well as prosecution and preliminary investigation agencies. In the case of gross violations of the law an Internet service provider can stop rendering Internet service to a firm or individual.Independent journalists, bloggers, human rights activists and foreign observers criticize the project of the law and introduction of the Internet-censorship and limitation the freedom of speech in Belarus. They were the first who responded to the state’s attack against the media.

Criminalization of the Internet-Users

In 2001 the Presidential Decree extended the concept of “national security” on the Internet as a potential battle-field. The special bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB (the Committee for State Security in Belarus still bears the old name) received the extreme right to seize data distributed through any channel of communication in order to fight criminal activity and to guarantee state security. This law established the right of the KGB to obtain any data considered to be “relevant” from state entities and from private or public organizations as well, and also gave it the unlimited access to the information systems (including log files) of communication providers.

This extraordinary measures to control the Internet-users, who are described in the decree rather as potential offenders, will very likely lead to the criminalization of the Internet-users, when practically each one could be accused of violation of law, and, regardless of the presumption of innocence, imprisonment. Already in 2005 Lukashenka attempted to prevent the “illegal” spread of the personal information through the dating websites and social networks. This measure was most likely designed to control the massive immigration from the country. The first restrictions on the content of information were placed already in 2006, carried out by the “Republic Committee on Prevention of Pornography, Violence, and Cruelty Propaganda”.

A number of Articles of the Belarusian Criminal Code restrict the freedom of speech and effectively criminalize any criticism of the government and the president in particular. These laws include: Articles 188 (defamation), 189 (insult), 367 (defamation of the President), 368 (insult to the President) and 369 (insult to a government official). Defamation and insult through the media are prosecuted under Articles 188 and 189 with imprisonment up to two years. Defamation of the President is punishable with imprisonment of up to five years.If the information is “to the detriment of internal security, sovereignty or territorial integrity”, or if distributed through the mass media, the offence is aggravated up to 5 years’ imprisonment. Violations of freedom of expression and freedom of speech are well documented by the international organizations such as the UNHCR, the Amnesty International, the Reporters Without Borders and others, whose continuous appeals for change are ignored by the Belarusian government.

During past few years, several Belarusian and Russian musicians and rock- and pop-bands have been unofficially banned from radio and television in Belarus, have had their concert licenses revoked, and have had their interviews censored in the media. Researchers Maya Medich and Lemez Lovas wrote in their report “Hidden Truths. Music, Politics and Censorship in Lukashenka´s Belarus” in 2006 that "independent music-making in Belarus today is an increasingly difficult and risky enterprise", and that the Belarusian government "puts pressure on “unofficial” musicians - including ‘banning’ from official media and imposing severe restrictions on live performance". The policies of the Belarusian government tend to divide Belarusian musicians into pro-government "official" and pro-democracy "unofficial" camps. Economic barriers have been placed against various artists, leading as well to the self-censorship.

In 2008 the list of the “Enemies of the Internet” included 15 countries: Belarus, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Burma, China, Cuba, Egypt, Ethiopia, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Zimbabwe and Vietnam. The RWB underlines that cyber-freedom in Belarus is under the threat because of the scandalous Decree on censorship in the Internet. The organization has expressed their concern upon the plans of the Belarusian government to tighten control in the Internet, attracting attention to the fact that the freedom of speech in Belarus is considerably limited even without that: “After placing most of the traditional media under its control, the regime is pursuing an offensive against new media”.All the internal and external data-traffic in Belarus goes through the infrastructure of the operator-monopolist Beltelecom, and could be easily filtered. All the Internet-modems are counted and registered under the defined IP-address. For instance, the filtering of gay and lesbian websites has been an official policy since the beginning of 2005, on the basis that they supposedly contain pornographic material. Beltelecom’s control over external connection channels allows for regulating the Internet-traffic. During presidential elections in 2006, access to opposition and independent media sites appeared to be temporarily blocked – this indirect filtering of opposition sites was documented. Some specialists have suggested that, during presidential elections, Beltelecom established so-called shaping practices - that is, deliberately slowing down access to specific IP addresses. Beltelecom allegedly received special “requests” from the authorities to block certain websites for a limited period.

The restricted for Belarus URL list includes websites forbidden for distribution by the Republic Committee on Prevention of Pornography, Violence, and Cruelty Propaganda. Cyber-cafes install software that either blocks URLs within the list of forbidden sites or alerts the administrator if such a URL is visited. Administrators of the cyber-cafes have to require passport identification of customers. Some cyber-cafes also limit the volume of Internet-traffic and decrease the download speed when exceeded. On the request of state security services, administrators keep the logs of users’ activity in the Internet.

State Monopoly in the Internet

The recent changes in the Belarusian legislature remind the experience of such countries, as China and Iran, where the main objective of the censorship is the total control of the authorities over the usage and production of information.

In September 2006 the resolution of the Council of Ministers “On Some Aspects of the Realization of the Retail Sale by Samples through the Internet” placed the restrictions on the activities of the Internet-shops, which have to be hosted only in the national domain zone .BY. On the surface, the document is aimed at the further regulation and monopolization of the e-commerce, hosting services and Internet providers. The entrepreneurs can be punished without a decision of the court by suspension of rendering services. Stations of users’ identification are to exist as well. Thus, all the websites, addressed to the Belarusian audience and created by the citizens of Belarus (sic!), should have the domain name in the .BY zone and be placed on the Belarusian servers. The re-registration of the websites will bring astonishing profits to the state monopolist, as well as resettlement of the websites on the Belarusian servers. But where the providers in Belarus will find the capacities to place on their servers thousands of the remote websites? Or will be those, who work freelance for the foreign contractors, persecuted as well? The authorities justify this measure by the supposedly reduction of prices for the Internet-traffic. But it will only bring profits to the state Internet monopolist. All commercial activities in the Internet are regulated by the state. All the Internet-providers are legally obliged to register domain names with the State Center of Information Security, as well as to obtain a license for retail trade by e-commerce activities. International electronic payment systems are seriously limited in Belarus. All international monetary transfers must occur through banks that notify the tax authorities of all fund transfers from abroad.

The usage of the term the “National Segment of the Internet” concerning the global network is rather absurd and displays the ambition of the state authorities to maximize their profits from the Internet. Sooner or later it will contradict with the interests of the transnational corporations, presented by the notorious WTO, whose aim is the introduction of the market regulations in the Internet for the sake of profiting the global capitalism. Some international software companies and search-engine hosts, eager to increase their profits, are cooperating with governments that limit the users’ access to the Internet. For instance, in accordance with the WTO’s accession requirements in 2007, Beltelecom should be privatized and its monopoly of the external communication channels should be ended. The Ministry of Communications and Informatization has agreed to privatize Beltelecom, on condition that the government remains the controlling shareholder. The ministry has also declared that Beltelecom’s control over external communication channels will remain after the privatization, with licenses given only to those operators, who have built their own external communication infrastructure.

The state monopoly allows the ruling authorities to define the prices for the Internet. This turns the Internet as an indispensable source of information into the luxury for the most of the population. We live nowadays in the information society, where the access to information presents one of the main factors which create differentiation in the society. High prices for the Internet create inequality and barriers for gaining knowledge and information. The Internet-elite profits from getting the information faster – and they react faster as well. But the Internet is so indispensable, as electricity, for instance. It must be accessible for everyone.

The local computer networks, as well as the Wi-Fi standard devices as alternatives to the state monopoly over the Internet and potential channels of social protest are under the special control in Belarus. For instance, the number of the public Wi-Fi spots is Minsk is next to nothing, they are found only in the state-owned cyber-cafes, where the ID of user is required, and the Internet traffic is limited to 56 Kb/sec.The decree also introduces the institution of copyright over intellectual property in the Internet, which will pave the way for the mediacorporations, and allow them to buy massively copyrights for music, film and news.

Bloggers fight against the Soviet Traditions of Mind-Control

Unfortunately, nowadays the methods, which were used by the secret services in the Soviet times got a new development. The independent mass media didn’t exist in the USSR, and for example the foreign radio stations were jammed, while the free distribution of information was persecuted there. Nevertheless, a huge role in the critics of the Soviet totalitarianism played the dissident movement, organized by the activists, writers and civic journalists, who distributed alternative information by the means of “samizdat” and the amateurs, who intercept radio, weaken the Iron Curtain. Besides, the prolonged concealment and falsification of information leaded to the spread of rumors and loss of faith of the citizens to the state mass media and official information. After the Chernobyl catastrophe in 1986 the state tactics of information concealment leaded to the criminal inactivity of the authorities and mass deceit of the population.

According to the exploration of the role of locative media in the contemporary activism by Brian Holmes, new technologies have changed the way of political struggle completely. During the legendary protests against the G8 summit in Genua for the first time in history the Internet opened unprecedented opportunities for creation of alternative representations, which were revolutionary themselves. Exchange of information through alternative radio- and video-broadcasting, blogs, forums, chats, mailing-lists and wiki happened in the real time and made possible the creative activities and coordination of the masses at the streets.

During the presidential campaign of 2006 in Belarus the Internet played an important role in facilitating the emergence of horizontal solidarity networks, when the political leaders were disoriented and not convincing anymore. This alternative information source played a major role in the politicization of the vast groups of population, articulation of their demands and mobilization. People's imagination with help of amateur photo- and video-equipment created massive anonymous subversive practices. This struggle with Leviathan was broadcasted through the local computer networks and was displayed on the sites of web-satire (collages and feuilletons on http://belzhaba.com and http://blog.belaruspartisan.org) and alternative news (http://belarus.indymedia.org and minsk.by community of LiveJournal.com). These grass-roots recourses had more visitors and gained more people’s confidence, than the official websites of the political parties and news resources, financed by the neoliberals. The capacity of traffic exceeded the powers of these non-commercial recourses. The threat from the state to ban of local computer networks followed.

In the aftermath of forged Lukashenka's victory at the presidential elections in 2006 and resulting massive political repressions, betrayal by the opposition political leaders of the people, and general crisis in the traditional media, the Internet became the only tribune for free political expression.

No wonder that the central slogans of the authoritarian regime in Belarus are the promotion of the new technologies and modernization of the economic infrastructure. It is a populist strategy to show its alleged progressive character. But even the superficial analysis of the recent prohibitive legislature in the Internet displays, that the new technologies are used in Belarus by the ruling authorities exclusively in order to suppress critics and self-organization. This attempt of the authorities to control the population in Belarus, where the majority still follows the agrarian world-view and lifestyle, with help of the technocratic ideology, reminds colonization. Forced modernization of the information sphere, control in the Internet and suppression of the alternative and independent media interfere with the populations’ lifestyles and customs, ruin the personal autonomy and deprive the people from the inalienable rights for the freedom of speech and expression and from the free and open access to information.

Blog-journalism presents a brave example of civic journalism. Webblogs, based on the standard of the open access and usability, are a valuable alternative source of information, free from the corporative and ideological bias. At the same time they are more specialised, personal and updated.

Following the principles of “samizdat”, the webbloggers in Belarus challenge the status quo and search for the objective information from the independent sources. Thanks to their coordination, sensitivity to the attempts of mass deception and free-thinking spirit the development of the blogosphere in Belarus stands out especially against the background of the obsolete non-digital media. In spite of the monopolized by the authoritarian regime Internet-traffic, persecution and restrictive laws, the multiple webbloggers on their own risk provide the alternative views and analysis, and are a motor for the democratic resistance in the country.

The authorities persecute free-thinking and call to account the journalists and Internet-users, who dare to challenge the power of the ideological apparatus in the country. In its absolute strive for control the overgrown repressive apparatus in Belarus is eager to subject the Internet as well. This strive is pathological and will lead only to paranoid self-control and self-censorship among the citizens and the state officials themselves (when conscious of being identified and traced by officials, both readers and writers are much more cautious and less willing to view the websites criticizing the regime). Finally it will bring the self-destruction of the authoritarian regime. The decaying autocracy in Belarus once and for all lost its integrity.