me

[eleni-anz]

Ummm byee

[snumblesaurus]

So I kind of hate that Putin is trying to restrict the flow of information into Russia so that he can control the narrative, so for my Russian friends, here is my guide on

How to get around internet censorship and maintain internet privacy

This will be an extremely long post 😅

Priorities

Download the Tor Browser

This will hopefully help you access the internet regardless of Russian government bans. It’s a little slow, but better than nothing. It hides your IP address from the internet, so it’s kind of like using a VPN. A very basic summary of how Tor works: your internet traffic is routed through several “nodes”. The Entry Node, can see your IP address but has no idea what data you’re sending, and this goes through several middle nodes, until it reaches the Exit Node. The Exit Node can see what data you’re sending, but it can’t see your IP address so it doesn’t know WHO sent it. That’s why it’s a good idea to do nothing identifying when using the Tor Browser, like writing personal information. Here’s a blog post with more detailed information about the Tor Browser.

Get a VPN

VPNs are often used to get around government internet restrictions. Russia will probably not be able to do much about it. However, not all VPNs are created equal. Nearly all of the free VPNs are a scam that turn around and sell your data, so free VPNs are not secure. The only exception to this is ProtonVPN which has a free tier, but it’s very slow. Basically the only good VPN is one you pay for. When choosing a VPN, be aware of where the company is based, because if a VPN company is based in the USA, it will have to comply USA privacy laws. So choose a VPN based in a country that has good privacy laws. A great one is Mullvad VPN, which is based in Sweden. But for the purposes of Russia, just making sure your VPN is not Russian or in a country sympathetic to Russia is probably good enough.

Alternative Front-Ends A frontend is the the part of a website which the user interacts with directly. To browse the contents of websites, you usually have to visit them. However, many people have made alternative privacy-respecting frontends to popular websites that allow you to see the site’s content without actually visiting the website. This helps avoid tracking, data-collection, and even countries’ attempts to ban websites. Twitter is banned in Russia right now, but using all an alternative frontend to Twitter works (according to my Russian friend).

Google Translate

Lingva Translate / Instances

SimplyTranslate / Instances

some instances allow you to choose to translate with several other services (such as DeepL)

Imgur

Rimgo / Instances

Instagram

Bibliogram / Instances

Medium

Scribe / Instance

Reddit

Libreddit / Instances

Teddit / Instances

TikTok

ProxiTok / Instance

Twitter

Nitter / Instances

Wikipedia

Wikiless / Instances

YouTube

Invidious / Instances

Piped / Instances

YouTube Music

Beatbump / Instance

If anyone knows of one of these for Tumblr please let me know. I found this site called Tumgir but it looks sketchy and unlike the rest of the ones I listed, it’s not open-source. So visit with caution, but I’m mentioning it because it might be better than nothing.

There are also these browser extensions that automatically redirect site links to the available alternatives:

Mozilla Firefox

LibRedirect - Redirects YouTube, YT Music, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Imgur, Reddit, Wikipedia, Medium, etc.

Google Chrome

Privacy Redirect - Redirects Google Maps, Google Search, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, Youtube.

iPhone (iOS 15+) Safari

Privacy Redirect - Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, Google Translate, Google maps, Google Search, Medium

Android

UntrackMe - Google Maps, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube

Messaging / Communication

Matrix is a federated and decentralized End-to-End Encrypted (E2EE) messaging with many platforms, the most popular of which is Element. It’s like Discord, but worse. It’s getting better over time though! You can even use a a throwaway email to sign-up.

If you’re Russian you likely already know about Telegram, but MAKE SURE you’re aware that only Secret Chats are End-to-End Encrypted. So don’t say anything that would get you in trouble outside of a Secret Chat.

End Notes

China is way better at internet censorship. They’ve had years to build the infrastructure to control the flow of information online. And yet, the Chinese people still manage to “climb the wall” and find ways around this. Russia is new to this game and doesn’t have the resources China does. So I really doubt it’ll be that hard to get around their attempts to block websites. Have faith! And feel free to DM me for more info cause this post just scratches the surface for things you can do tbh.

[flotorshi]

Literally every episode of My Cat from Hell

[vithcy]

When your super talented friends create new content:

[birdmans]

Diary of a Wimpy Kid dir. Thor Freudenthal

[nicola-coughlan]

— such is the tragedy of stars (x)

[bioluminosity]

god of strings, what universe will he release

[livelovecaliforniadreams]

So originally, Alicia Raycraft, our wardrobe designer, and I, we had a little meeting and we were going to have her design Pam a wedding dress because Alicia is an amazing designer. But then we realized that Pam could never afford a custom wedding dress. So we stayed with the rule that our characters can only wear what they can afford to wear. So what we realized was that Pam would do what most brides would do. So Alicia and I went to David’s Bridal. And we had a budget because, you know, the consultant is always like, What’s your budget? We gave her a budget. She pulled a bunch of dresses, and I absolutely loved this one. I mean, I thought it was perfect for Pam. We really tried to approach it like the character would approach it. You know, she had this pregnancy that she’s trying to hide, also that she has to make room for. So we got like a-line dresses with a princess cut, and this had that little extra bit of like, what do you call that tulle or whatever in the front? Yes, we were like, This is perfect. I tried the dresses on with my little pregnancy bump belly. And then I actually contributed something to Pam’s wedding outfit, which is her wedding necklace. There’s a really good shot of it at eight minutes and 14 seconds in this scene. I had gone to like a jewelry art show. You know, those? Like an art fair? And they sell jewelry and art and things. Are you kidding? I love an art fair in the park. Get out of town. Yeah. And this woman was selling jewelry, and I loved this necklace and it was made out of these crystals and it had a meaning behind it where it was supposed to bring you like peace and good luck. And when I saw it, I was kind of like, would Pam wear this on her wedding day? And so I brought it into Alicia, and she approved it and the producers approved it. And then we bought two necklaces and I kept one. -Angela & Jenna

[dankmemeuniversity]

[zerosocialskillz]

Today is the only day you can reblog this meme, everyone

[thefallenbibliophilequote]

Happy 22/2/22 day!

[niuniente]

Not to mention that today, 22/2/22 Pluto has finished its trip around the sun which started in 1774.

[littletroubledgrrrl]

[quixoticrobotic]

a song is good if

1. it captures a primal human emotion i cant put into words

2. fits blorbo from my shows

3. stimmy

[picsthatmakeyougohmm]

hmmm

[whitealbum]

listening to music isn’t enough anymore i need to eat it

[just-shower-thoughts]

People on the internet tend to forget that other people have feelings.

[picsthatmakeyougohmm]

What are these called

[tiktoksthataregood-ish]

[picsthatmakeyougohmm]

hmmm

[badjokesbyjeff]

What’s the difference between an atheist and an evangelical Christian?

The atheist is honest about not following the teachings of Christ.