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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Mozilla, the maker of the popular web browser Firefox, said it received government demands to block add-ons that circumvent censorship.
The Mozilla Foundation, the entity behind the web browser Firefox, is blocking various censorship circumvention add-ons for its browser, including ones specifically to help those in Russia bypass state censorship. The add-ons were blocked at the request of Russia’s federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor — the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media — according to a statement by Mozilla to The Intercept.
“Following recent regulatory changes in Russia, we received persistent requests from Roskomnadzor demanding that five add-ons be removed from the Mozilla add-on store,” a Mozilla spokesperson told The Intercept in response to a request for comment. “After careful consideration, we’ve temporarily restricted their availability within Russia. Recognizing the implications of these actions, we are closely evaluating our next steps while keeping in mind our local community.”
“It’s a kind of unpleasant surprise because we thought the values of this corporation were very clear in terms of access to information.”
Stanislav Shakirov, the chief technical officer of Roskomsvoboda, a Russian open internet group, said he hoped it was a rash decision by Mozilla that will be more carefully examined.
“It’s a kind of unpleasant surprise because we thought the values of this corporation were very clear in terms of access to information, and its policy was somewhat different,” Shakirov said. “And due to these values, it should not be so simple to comply with state censors and fulfill the requirements of laws that have little to do with common sense.”
Developers of digital tools designed to get around censorship began noticing recently that their Firefox add-ons were no longer available in Russia.
On June 8, the developer of Censor Tracker, an add-on for bypassing internet censorship restrictions in Russia and other former Soviet countries, made a post on the Mozilla Foundation’s discussion forums saying that their extension was unavailable to users in Russia.
The developer of another add-on, Runet Censorship Bypass, which is specifically designed to bypass Roskomnadzor censorship, posted in the thread that their extension was also blocked. The developer said they did not receive any notification from Mozilla regarding the block.
Two VPN add-ons, Planet VPN and FastProxy — the latter explicitly designed for Russian users to bypass Russian censorship — are also blocked. VPNs, or virtual private networks, are designed to obscure internet users’ locations by routing users’ traffic through servers in other countries.
The Intercept verified that all four add-ons are blocked in Russia. If the webpage for the add-on is accessed from a Russian IP address, the Mozilla add-on page displays a message: “The page you tried to access is not available in your region.” If the add-on is accessed with an IP address outside of Russia, the add-on page loads successfully.
Supervision of Communications
Roskomnadzor is responsible for “control and supervision in telecommunications, information technology, and mass communications,” according to the Russia’s federal censorship agency’s English-language page.
In March, the New York Times reported that Roskomnadzor was increasing its operations to restrict access to censorship circumvention technologies such as VPNs. In 2018, there were multiple user reports that Roskomnadzor had blocked access to the entire Firefox Add-on Store.
According to Mozilla’s Pledge for a Healthy Internet, the Mozilla Foundation is “committed to an internet that includes all the peoples of the earth — where a person’s demographic characteristics do not determine their online access, opportunities, or quality of experience.” Mozilla’s second principle in their manifesto says, “The internet is a global public resource that must remain open and accessible.”
The Mozilla Foundation, which in tandem with its for-profit arm Mozilla Corporation releases Firefox, also operates its own VPN service, Mozilla VPN. However, it is only available in 33 countries, a list that doesn’t include Russia.
The same four censorship circumvention add-ons also appear to be available for other web browsers without being blocked by the browsers’ web stores. Censor Tracker, for instance, remains available for the Google Chrome web browser, and the Chrome Web Store page for the add-on works from Russian IP addresses. The same holds for Runet Censorship Bypass, VPN Planet, and FastProxy.
“In general, it’s hard to recall anyone else who has done something similar lately,” said Shakirov, the Russian open internet advocate. “For the last few months, Roskomnadzor (after the adoption of the law in Russia that prohibits the promotion of tools for bypassing blockings) has been sending such complaints about content to everyone.”
Anyone have a recommendation for a better service?
You don’t need one. It is easy to install an xpi in Firefox. The app store isn’t necessary. I.e., no walled garden. I wouldn’t blame Mozilla here.
[CITATION NEEDED]
The access to install xpis is (irony intended) censored in “retail” Firefox.
Myself, just installed soundfixer via .xpi on windows 10 Firefox.
There is also no such thing as a “retail” Firefox.
That’s plain wrong ? Last time I checked you can only do that on developer edition of Firefox otherwise you can only install it as a « temporary extension » that remove itself on next restart. Unless I’m missing something ?
For xpis that are on the store it’s absolutely correct. Which is the case here. It can be downloaded once and redistributed in any way (sneakernet) and installed offline.
Maybe that’s a Windows thing. I haven’t done it in a while. I really just install ublock and ghosterly. Here’s a link to the instructions: https://robots.net/software-and-applications/browsers-and-extensions/how-to-install-xpi-file-in-firefox/
Last time I checked it only made the extension temporary if the extension wasn’t signed by the developer. If you made your own extension you need to use the developer signing tool on it before installing.
I just checked. Manage Your Extensions -> Install Add-on From File…
Super easy. Am I missing something here? I don’t have any extra restrictions or steps at all. I have Bypass Paywalls Clean installed from a github build without any issue.
well okay, indeed I was wrong it seems tied to signing, however I thought Mozilla revoked that signature once it removed it from their store.
Librewolf or Mullvad browser
Do they work with android ?
The closest thing to Librewolf on Android is Mull. Keep in mind that some of the settings are different.
Librewolf’s extension store has refused Russia’s request?
Firefox?
This is only in the country that has regulatory authority, Russian, and is stated as temporary so Mozilla can figure out what to do about it.
Honestly it looks like corpo speak for “we’re waiting for everyone to forget so we can sweep it under the rug”.
Brave browser has been working great.
No. Brave is merely Chrome with extra steps. And it’s associated with lots of “web3” / crypto scams.
I know about Brave. I just didn’t want to crush the poor guys spirit.
Better to crush their spirit now, before it can be misled by lies; so that it can crash and burn and be reborn in the Fire of the Fox, as a Libre Wolf.
Or, if they prefer a more compact fursona, a Fennec.
Don’t use brave if you care about privacy, they claim to be privacy focused but will sell you out the first chance they get (which they already did)