Russian Internet Crackdown Shows Complexity of Modern Transparency

The list of nations with a comparatively open Internet took another hit this month with the creation of a Russian blacklist of banned websites.

The blacklist is ostensibly aimed at filtering out child pornography and keeping information promoting drugs and suicide out of the hands of youth, according to the Washington Post’s editorial page. But Russian investigative journalists report on Wired that the tool could “wind up blocking all kinds of online political speech” and the infrastructure supporting it could “become a tool for spying on millions of Russians.” The blacklist has been denounced by Reporters without Borders among others. This is especially galling considering Russia’s recent decision to join the Open Government Partnership, an international transparency coalition that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton played a role in organizing. It also underscores how complex transparency has become in the digital age. A nation can now genuinely open up the spigot of information for one audience while closing it tight for another.