09.08.2024 09:18:00
Дата публикации
In July of this year, interruptions in the operation of the YouTube video hosting service began in Russia, reaching a peak on August 8. According to Russian authorities, the slowdown is a measure to encourage the service to comply with Russian legislation.
How these events may turn out for Kazakhstan, the InformBuro publication investigated together with cyber lawyer, general counsel of the Eurasian Digital Foundation Sarkis Darbinyan and head of legal practice at EDF Yelzhan Kabyshev.
The Russian slowdown of YouTube is unlikely to affect Kazakhstanis, because at one time the countries agreed that all transit traffic would go unpurified at the request of national authorities, Sarkis Darbinyan believes:
“But the authorities of Kazakhstan, understanding the problem of digital fencing by Russia, probably do not count only on agreements with their northern neighbor and continue to build an alternative canal along the bottom of the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan with further access to Europe.”
At the same time, the laws and law enforcement practices of Kazakhstan and Russia are similar in many ways, recalls Yelzhan Kabyshev. In particular, in Kazakhstan, the state has the authority to restrict and block content based not only on court decisions, but also on orders from the Ministry of Culture and Information, as well as the Prosecutor General's Office, similar to the practice that exists in the Russian Federation:
“In 2022, a new concept was introduced into the Law “On Communications” - “register of static addresses of data transmission networks”. This technical term can be interpreted as a “white list of sites”. This addition to the law was adopted in July 2022, almost six months after the first mass shutdown of the Internet in the country. In the event of a state of emergency, users must be provided with access to sites included in the “white list”. However, even here the state has left a regulatory lever - depending on the specific circumstances, access to sites on this register may be restricted.”
Kazakhstanis still have reasons to worry, Darbinyan also agrees. In addition to the fact that the Government can arrange a total shutdown for citizens for a week and completely deprive the population of access to the Internet, as it was during Kantar, a highly dubious Order of the Minister of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated June 24, 2024, has recently appeared.
The order includes a slowdown as a measure of coercion to comply with the country's legislation, without resorting to immediate blocking, but forcing, through gradual restriction of access to the platform, to appoint a legal representative to remove materials. This measure of state coercion consists in an increasing loss of traffic to the platform from Kazakhstan over a year and a half, up to 90%.
“Therefore, if the regulator begins to have too many complaints about YouTube, it can also decide at any time to slow down YouTube in Kazakhstan. Sovereign legislation and technological practices of online censorship are beginning to spread throughout the region,” Sarkis Darbinyan concludes.
In turn, Yelzhan Kabyshev reminds that in Kazakhstan, the Law "On Communications" prohibits providing access to software such as anonymizers, VPN and Tor, which are classified as "communication bypass tools" (in Russia, such a law came into force in March of this year).
According to the expert, for this law to work effectively, it is necessary not only to block domains, but also to limit the distribution of applications through marketplaces.
"Recently, Apple removed some VPN clients from the Russian App Store for installation by iPhone users. This is a very interesting precedent. Maybe Kazakhstan will also work, but to be honest, I do not know whether Apple will comply with the requirements of the republic. I have not heard of the same Apple removing any applications from the App Store at the request of state bodies of Kazakhstan," Kabyshev noted.
How these events may turn out for Kazakhstan, the InformBuro publication investigated together with cyber lawyer, general counsel of the Eurasian Digital Foundation Sarkis Darbinyan and head of legal practice at EDF Yelzhan Kabyshev.
The Russian slowdown of YouTube is unlikely to affect Kazakhstanis, because at one time the countries agreed that all transit traffic would go unpurified at the request of national authorities, Sarkis Darbinyan believes:
“But the authorities of Kazakhstan, understanding the problem of digital fencing by Russia, probably do not count only on agreements with their northern neighbor and continue to build an alternative canal along the bottom of the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan with further access to Europe.”
At the same time, the laws and law enforcement practices of Kazakhstan and Russia are similar in many ways, recalls Yelzhan Kabyshev. In particular, in Kazakhstan, the state has the authority to restrict and block content based not only on court decisions, but also on orders from the Ministry of Culture and Information, as well as the Prosecutor General's Office, similar to the practice that exists in the Russian Federation:
“In 2022, a new concept was introduced into the Law “On Communications” - “register of static addresses of data transmission networks”. This technical term can be interpreted as a “white list of sites”. This addition to the law was adopted in July 2022, almost six months after the first mass shutdown of the Internet in the country. In the event of a state of emergency, users must be provided with access to sites included in the “white list”. However, even here the state has left a regulatory lever - depending on the specific circumstances, access to sites on this register may be restricted.”
Kazakhstanis still have reasons to worry, Darbinyan also agrees. In addition to the fact that the Government can arrange a total shutdown for citizens for a week and completely deprive the population of access to the Internet, as it was during Kantar, a highly dubious Order of the Minister of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan dated June 24, 2024, has recently appeared.
The order includes a slowdown as a measure of coercion to comply with the country's legislation, without resorting to immediate blocking, but forcing, through gradual restriction of access to the platform, to appoint a legal representative to remove materials. This measure of state coercion consists in an increasing loss of traffic to the platform from Kazakhstan over a year and a half, up to 90%.
“Therefore, if the regulator begins to have too many complaints about YouTube, it can also decide at any time to slow down YouTube in Kazakhstan. Sovereign legislation and technological practices of online censorship are beginning to spread throughout the region,” Sarkis Darbinyan concludes.
In turn, Yelzhan Kabyshev reminds that in Kazakhstan, the Law "On Communications" prohibits providing access to software such as anonymizers, VPN and Tor, which are classified as "communication bypass tools" (in Russia, such a law came into force in March of this year).
According to the expert, for this law to work effectively, it is necessary not only to block domains, but also to limit the distribution of applications through marketplaces.
"Recently, Apple removed some VPN clients from the Russian App Store for installation by iPhone users. This is a very interesting precedent. Maybe Kazakhstan will also work, but to be honest, I do not know whether Apple will comply with the requirements of the republic. I have not heard of the same Apple removing any applications from the App Store at the request of state bodies of Kazakhstan," Kabyshev noted.
(the text translation was done automatically)
