Section: Global Voices (The Netherlands)
Ukrainian Men’s Travel Ban News Debunked as Fake by Military
Ukrainian military warns: if you’ve been naughty and have been spreading rumors, Santa isn’t coming by! Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot. On November 19, Ukrainian men woke up to discover that if they were under 45, they would now apparently have to cancel their travel plans for the start of 2016, as Ukraine was banning them from leaving...
Unearthing Local Stories on the Russian-Language Internet
Digging for Buk missile systems. Original photo by Mark Robinson. May 1, 2014. CC 2.0. Edited by Kevin Rothrock. This article is part of a larger guidebook by RuNet Echo to help people learn how to conduct open-source research on the Russian Internet. Explore the complete guidebook at the special project page. While a lot of open-source research...
New Platform Provides Grassroots Organizing Opportunities for Ukraine’s Urbanites
View from roof into the yard of a highrise building in Kyiv, Ukraine. Image from torange.us, CC-By 4.0. In most urban high-rises with dozens of apartments, communication between neighbors usually amounts to “good morning” grunts in the elevator or occasional passive-aggressive notes about trash or parking taped to the entrance door. To improve...
Ukrainian Official Dismissed for Using Russian Email Service for Official Correspondence
Ukrainian authorities believe that using Russian email services could potentially “jeopardize the country’s information security.” Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot. A government official in Lviv region in western Ukraine has reportedly been sacked for using a Russian email service to conduct official correspondence related to his government...
Ukraine Goes to the Polls In Local Elections, But Not Everyone Gets a Vote
Voting in local elections at a polling station in Kiev, on October 25, 2015. Image by Alexey_Ivanov from Demotix. Ukraine held country-wide local elections on Sunday, October 25, with many new and old faces competing for positions of 10,000 mayors and 160,000 members of regional and local councils. The Ukrainian social media sphere has been abuzz...
Ukraine’s New Banned Websites Registry: Security Measure or Censorship Tool?
News of Ukraine’s new banned websites registry has Internet users worried. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot. When Ukraine’s Interior Minister announced the initiative to form a new cyberpolice unit on October 11, the focus of the media coverage—and of Minister Avakov’s statement—was very much on fighting online crime and beefing up...
So You Want to Conduct Open-Source Research
“Dreaming” by a4gpa. October 3, 2009. CC 2.0. Edited by Kevin Rothrock. This article is part of a larger guidebook by RuNet Echo to help people learned how to conduct open-source research on the Russian Internet. Explore the complete guidebook at the special project page. Before diving into the specifics of investigating open-source data on the...
Watch Out, Internet! Ukraine Is Getting Its Own Cyberpolice
The new Ukrainian cyberpolice force is tasked with protecting the country and its citizens from malicious Internet activity, and is expected to do it better than its predecessors. Photo by Ruslan Stepanov for Demotix. Images mixed by Tetyana Lokot. Ukraine’s law enforcement ranks will soon feature a special division tasked with preventing...
The Murky Ethics of Publishing Data on Russian Servicemen ‘Bombing Syria’
Why are Ukrainian citizen sleuths exposing Russian military participating in Syrian airstrikes? Images from Luis Prado and Pavel N. for the Noun Project. Disclaimer: Aric Toler is a contributor for Bellingcat. On October 8, the Ukrainian website Mirotvorets (“Peacemaker”) published a list of nine Russian servicemen who were supposedly responsible...
When Online Kremlin Propaganda Leaves the Web, It Looks Like This
The Material Evidence exhibition website was just one of dozens in the pro-Kremlin network discovered by Alexander. In previous investigative pieces for RuNet Echo, Lawrence Alexander has exposed a large network of pro-Kremlin websites, and (together with Aric Toler) provided an in-depth look at some of these resources. In this installment of his...
