In Trying To Ban Telegram, Russia Breaks The Internet
Found on Techdirt on Wednesday, 18 April 2018
Telegram tried to mitigate the ban by moving some of its essential infrastructure to third-party cloud services. But Russian telecom regulator Roskomnadzor responded by blocking upwards of 16 million IP addresses, many belonging to Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. Not too surprisingly, the heavy-handed maneuver resulted in connectivity problems across massive swaths of the Russian internet.
Russian state media meanwhile continues to demonize Telegram as a haven for villains, and is directing users to alternatives like TamTam with alleged ties to the Russian government.
Russia (and China, as well as North Korea) are just doing that most other governments would love to do too; they just don't care that much about the backlash and public opinion.