Despite many regimes actively filtering the internet – issues I cover extensively in my new book – a Russian minister has suggested that it’s futile:
There will be no censorship in the Internet, Russian Communications and Information Technology Minister Igor Shchyogolev told students of the Moscow State University’s Journalism Department on Monday.
“Such censorship is impossible for technological reasons,” he said.
As state regulation of the Internet is problematic technically, it is necessary to promote self-regulation, the minister said.
Despite this apparently positive comment, freedom of speech and the press in Russia is declining at a worrying rate.