Doug Madory, an internet analyst at network tracking company Kentik, says that if Russia is removed from Cogent's global network, it will likely result in slower internet connections. Traffic from Cogent's former customers will fall back on other providers in the country, potentially leading to network congestion. There is no indication as to whether other internet backbone providers will also suspend services in Russia.
Digital rights activists have criticized Cogent's decision to disconnect itself from Russia, arguing that it could prevent Russian civilians from accessing credible information about the invasion. "Cutting Russians off from internet access cuts them off from sources of independent news and the ability to organize anti-war protests," Eva Galperin, the director of cybersecurity at the digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, said on Twitter....
The company wants to prevent the Russian government from using its networks for cyberattacks.
The Post argues that on a larger scale,"these moves bring Russia closer to the day when its online networks face largely inward, their global connections weakened, if not cut off entirely." "I am very afraid of this," said Mikhail Klimarev, executive director of the Internet Protection Society, which advocates for digital freedoms in Russia. "I would like to convey to people all over the world that if you turn off the Internet in Russia, then this means cutting off 140 million people from at least some truthful information. As long as the Internet exists, people can find out the truth. There will be no Internet — all people in Russia will only listen to propaganda...." [E]ven two weeks ago, Russia's Internet was comparatively free and integrated into the larger online world, allowing civil society to organize, opposition figures to deliver their messages and ordinary Russians to gain ready access to alternative sources of news in an era when Putin was strangling his nation's free newspapers and broadcast stations.... Patrick Boehler, head of digital strategy at Radio Free Europe, said CrowdTangle data showed that independent news stories in the Russian language worldwide were getting shared many more times on social media than stories from state-run media. He said that once the Kremlin lost control of the narrative, it would have been hard to regain.
The last independent journalistic outposts are gone, and the Internet options are increasingly restricted through a combination of forces, all spurred by war in Ukraine but coming from both within and outside Russia. The government blocked access to the major Ukrainian websites, as well as the British Broadcasting Corporation, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, andDeutsche Welle. The new law that could result in 15 years of prison for publishing false news on the war in Russia has led to the suspension of reporting by international news organizations.
Meanwhile, Politico reminds us that even Oracle has shut down its Russian cloud service operations. Laura Manley, the executive director of Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, said Russia is creating a perfect situation to control its narrative and limit outside coverage of its Ukrainian invasion by Western social media sources. "You have the lack of eyewitness information because you have critical infrastructure being shut off," she said. "So it's sort of a worst case scenario in terms of getting real-time accurate information."
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