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BOSTON (AP) — Ukraineattempt to get Russia The Internet failed to launch, but a diverse group of experts suggested a narrower approach to sanctioning the Kremlin for invading its neighbor: Consider creating a mechanism that could technically blacklist individual Russian military and propaganda websites.
In an open letter released Thursday, activists say it’s time for the internet community to develop a way to confront humanitarian crises. The idea they float is to collect and publish a list of approved IP addresses and domain names in the form of data feeds that telecommunications providers and other network operators can subscribe to, in order to make their targets unattainable.
Bill Woodcock, executive director of Packet Clearing House, a global nonprofit that promotes internet development, said no new technology would be required and minimal effort would be required to get the system up and running because it would reflect what is already in use by network operators.
“The implementation is very simple because it’s exactly the same as what we use for spam, malware, phishing and DDoS and the like,” added Woodcock, who co-organized the study with Bart Groothuis, a Dutch member of the European Parliament.
The nearly 40 signatories include security researchers, online civil libertarians, former White House officials, current and former officials of the Internet Archive and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, the nonprofit that manages the internet’s naming system and address inventory.
They agree with ICANN leadership that disconnecting a country’s population from the internet is “disproportionate and inappropriate” because it “denies them access to information that could lead them to withdraw their support for war actions, leaving them with only access to their own information.” chooses to provide its own government.”
Because the Internet is decentralized, privately managed, and administered by ICANN and its regional affiliates, not governments, it will depend on these multiple stakeholders to accept the content of a blacklist and participate in its implementation.
Woodcock acknowledged that the biggest hurdle to the signatories’ proposal was the question of who should draft a list of sanctions that must be agreed upon by multiple stakeholders. This process has been relatively seamless for deciding what is spam and what is malware. However, when it comes to blocking other sites, network operators have been reluctant to do so unless requested by the government.
Woodock said the letter had 87 authors involved in the 10 days of heated debate, but many of them did not allow their companies to sign it.
Last week, UkraineMykhailo Fedorov, minister of digital transformation, asked ICANN to remove it Russia‘s country-level domain Remove .ru from the internet and disconnect root servers in Russia. Goeran Marby, head of ICANN, dismissed the request, saying the agency must “maintain its impartiality”, saying its mandate “does not include taking punitive actions” including restricting access “regardless of sanctions or provocations”.
State-controlled Russian media is spreading unfounded, provocative allegations online, for example Ukraine develops biological or chemical weapons. At the same time, they censor news media that don’t follow Kremlin lines in a new law that threatens journalists with up to 15 years in prison. Russia He also shut down independent news organizations.
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