1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:19,800 37C3 preroll music 2 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:20,800 Applaus 3 00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:24,150 Boris: All right so everybody can hear me very well my name is Boris I'm part of the 4 00:00:24,150 --> 00:00:27,720 ABC black cross Belarus and I will be talking about tractors Rockets and the 5 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:32,680 internet and I have very short time so you will see very few things of those one 6 00:00:32,680 --> 00:00:37,320 thing we are in the sal g because I didn't want to be in the sal z. z as it's kind of 7 00:00:37,320 --> 00:00:40,200 like ideologically doesn't pass for people in the Eastern Europe 8 00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:46,820 laughter, applause 9 00:00:46,820 --> 00:00:51,780 yeah and yeah we will have like a short question answer section in the end what 10 00:00:51,780 --> 00:00:55,220 the [ __ ] is ABC-Belarus? Many of you don't know we are like an activist 11 00:00:55,220 --> 00:00:59,149 Anarchist Collective that supports for the last 15 years people who ended up in 12 00:00:59,149 --> 00:01:04,390 prison fighting dictatorship in the country since our existence beginning of 13 00:01:04,390 --> 00:01:08,390 our existence we never had any people or we never had a situation where we never 14 00:01:08,390 --> 00:01:12,509 had people in the prison so people are constantly in prison in Belarus in the 15 00:01:12,509 --> 00:01:17,070 last 15 years fighting the dictatorship we do solidarity work also with those who are 16 00:01:17,070 --> 00:01:23,600 around the people who are in prisons so their families and so on we also promote 17 00:01:23,600 --> 00:01:27,100 we we promoting we don't have so much time left anymore but before building up a 18 00:01:27,100 --> 00:01:32,020 security culture so for the activists to know how to go around the new mechanisms 19 00:01:32,020 --> 00:01:37,460 of a dictatorship to suppress the population we do collect a little bit of 20 00:01:37,460 --> 00:01:41,960 data from like the courts so we see what the government is using for example to 21 00:01:41,960 --> 00:01:46,040 crack the laptops we see all this [ __ ] coming up in in the documents from time to 22 00:01:46,040 --> 00:01:50,299 time and this is not a talk about our group so you can check out our website and 23 00:01:50,299 --> 00:01:55,860 see what is it about so tractors here they are they don't always look like that 24 00:01:55,860 --> 00:02:01,070 sometimes they look like that tractors are one of the important parts of like for 25 00:02:01,070 --> 00:02:05,250 you to imagine how Belarusian industry looks like so after collapse of the Soviet 26 00:02:05,250 --> 00:02:12,340 Union Belarusia Bellarus was and remained like a zone of heavy and Light Industry 27 00:02:12,340 --> 00:02:19,260 production of tractors but also we had industry that was connected with war or 28 00:02:19,260 --> 00:02:24,190 militarism of the Soviet Union right? So there are factories that are producing 29 00:02:24,190 --> 00:02:28,610 small chips for the rockets and [ __ ] like that and this continues so partly 30 00:02:28,610 --> 00:02:33,660 Russian war industry on Belarus in production of the Rockets the situation 31 00:02:33,660 --> 00:02:37,920 where you know Russian Rockets hit wrong Target in Ukraine also connected with the 32 00:02:37,920 --> 00:02:42,360 fact that Belarusian workers are stealing precious metals from the factories. So 33 00:02:42,360 --> 00:02:48,319 like those produced chips are working like [ __ ] and we do have it but it's not like 34 00:02:48,319 --> 00:02:51,810 Taiwan or something like that it's more like imagine Soviet Union post Soviet 35 00:02:51,810 --> 00:02:58,190 Union country that people are doing like some outdated Technologies. Yeah. So those 36 00:02:58,190 --> 00:03:01,680 are like the topic about the Rockets. Belarus is participating in the war 37 00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:07,560 efforts of Russia right now and it was participating for very long in buildup to 38 00:03:07,560 --> 00:03:12,909 the war so helping producing enough rockets and enough of the you know like 39 00:03:12,909 --> 00:03:18,270 flying [ __ ] that goes to Ukraine right now. However after collapse of the Soviet 40 00:03:18,270 --> 00:03:22,080 Union Belarus became also very dependent and it was dependent and became dependent 41 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:26,659 on Russian resources so oil gas and all this [ __ ] comes mostly from Russia 42 00:03:26,659 --> 00:03:32,770 economically dependent on Russia and that's politically dependent as well. 43 00:03:32,770 --> 00:03:36,840 Talking about Lukashenka so belus is a dictatorship that ruled by this guy, next 44 00:03:36,840 --> 00:03:42,049 year is 30 years anniversary. Lukashenka and Technologies he's a very special 45 00:03:42,049 --> 00:03:47,079 character you can do like lectures in universities about his personality I will 46 00:03:47,079 --> 00:03:51,269 do a couple of quotes about how he perceives Technologies and how he sees 47 00:03:51,269 --> 00:03:56,069 himself in the technological World. For example "we do not need an imported system 48 00:03:56,069 --> 00:04:21,850 for falsifying elections we will create our own one run by the State" so he's 49 00:04:21,850 --> 00:04:27,490 very close to the nature he thinks also shows his like attitude to Technologies 50 00:04:27,490 --> 00:04:31,380 and the last part is "I even don't have a mobile phone I'm looking at other 51 00:04:31,380 --> 00:04:35,770 presidents and see how they're preoccupied with their iPhones I'm not doing that I 52 00:04:35,770 --> 00:04:41,400 know what security is" and even more "I have enough people who can do that for me" 53 00:04:41,400 --> 00:04:45,280 and that's an important factor Lukashenka knows how to drive a tractor, he doesn't 54 00:04:45,280 --> 00:04:50,199 know how to operate iPhone most probably. But he's he has this mentality that 55 00:04:50,199 --> 00:04:54,370 understands okay I need enough smart people around me who will help me to go 56 00:04:54,370 --> 00:04:58,850 through the modern world and that's what he's doing a lot so he has quite a huge 57 00:04:58,850 --> 00:05:02,590 let's say cabinet of people who are helping him out to figure out the modern 58 00:05:02,590 --> 00:05:06,010 world in a different directions politically technologically wise 59 00:05:06,010 --> 00:05:11,500 economically. Although Belarus is a dictatorship it is a country that was for 60 00:05:11,500 --> 00:05:18,591 many years a partner of the European Union it changed recently before 2020 protest 61 00:05:18,591 --> 00:05:23,640 before the uprising of 2020 European Union was cooperating with Belarus on the border 62 00:05:23,640 --> 00:05:28,160 security what they're doing also in turkey and many other authoritarian regimes so 63 00:05:28,160 --> 00:05:31,680 for European politicians to protect the borders build up a fences it's fine to 64 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:35,780 have like a bloody dictator that is ready to kill people. So that's what European 65 00:05:35,780 --> 00:05:40,230 Union was doing and that involved also transaction of Technologies so for example 66 00:05:40,230 --> 00:05:43,950 you go to the Belarusian border and you get in controlled and you have this huge 67 00:05:43,950 --> 00:05:47,660 x-ray machine that is going to x-ray your car or whatever [ __ ] you have and it's 68 00:05:47,660 --> 00:05:50,690 written like there's a plate that says like this machine is financed by the 69 00:05:50,690 --> 00:05:53,960 European Union and you think like wow thank you European Union you're like 70 00:05:53,960 --> 00:05:59,889 really helping democracy in Belarus. So European Union was also investing a lot in 71 00:05:59,889 --> 00:06:04,250 the infrastructure projects inside of the country roads and [ __ ] like that this 72 00:06:04,250 --> 00:06:07,539 was connected also because belus is Transit country so you need a lot of 73 00:06:07,539 --> 00:06:12,449 Transit between Russia and Europe not anymore but before it was the case right 74 00:06:12,449 --> 00:06:18,530 everybody wanted to trade with Russia a lot still do. Also some countries inside 75 00:06:18,530 --> 00:06:22,070 of the European Union were supporting police efforts in Belarus, there was a 76 00:06:22,070 --> 00:06:27,180 huge scandal in Germany that German cops were bringing Belarusian Riot cops to 77 00:06:27,180 --> 00:06:31,660 evictions of or like protection of Gorleben transport like the nuclear waste 78 00:06:31,660 --> 00:06:35,319 transport back in the days so they wouldn't have like Belarusian cops hitting 79 00:06:35,319 --> 00:06:39,130 you you know but they would have them like just sitting next to you and and watching 80 00:06:39,130 --> 00:06:43,300 how the German cops are working and that's where for example Belarusian cops learned 81 00:06:43,300 --> 00:06:47,380 to film everything at the demonstrations or at some events so they're also running 82 00:06:47,380 --> 00:06:51,310 with these cameras and filming and then post factum might apply repressions to the 83 00:06:51,310 --> 00:06:54,440 people who were participating in the protests and some of the cameras were 84 00:06:54,440 --> 00:07:02,000 donated generously by the German state to the Belarusian cops. And there are many 85 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:09,680 more other money flows like ecological technological also private public 86 00:07:09,680 --> 00:07:14,090 everything goes in Belarus dictatorship yes but I mean money you know that cross 87 00:07:14,090 --> 00:07:20,130 the border easily. Very simple Technologies to fight the population, 88 00:07:20,130 --> 00:07:25,310 water cannons were brought from Canada so we had this fancy water Canadian water 89 00:07:25,310 --> 00:07:29,060 cannons I will show you how belarussian people hacked those during the protests 90 00:07:29,060 --> 00:07:34,100 very easy. Camera usage for documentation as I was mentioning cops running around 91 00:07:34,100 --> 00:07:37,780 with cameras all the time this is they what they learned from the German cops 92 00:07:37,780 --> 00:07:42,930 there were like a new technologies that were like mobile car Shields so they bring 93 00:07:42,930 --> 00:07:46,680 it up to block the whole street. Russians have like bigger machines belarusians have 94 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:51,160 smaller machines but in general the idea is that you you have this kind of like a a 95 00:07:51,160 --> 00:07:54,819 truck that brings a huge shield and you block the whole street so protesters 96 00:07:54,819 --> 00:08:00,960 cannot go through it. And crowd control equipment from other countries like we had 97 00:08:00,960 --> 00:08:05,370 tear gas from Czech and stun grenades from Czech and Israelis and so on so like 98 00:08:05,370 --> 00:08:10,120 everybody were delivering and providing weapons to Belarus as if it's like sure 99 00:08:10,120 --> 00:08:14,900 you know we know that you doing some [ __ ] there but have it for you. But there are 100 00:08:14,900 --> 00:08:19,680 some other funny you know like hacking from Belarusian state so for example here 101 00:08:19,680 --> 00:08:24,340 like during the protest people were putting Flags like white red white flags 102 00:08:24,340 --> 00:08:31,910 which were the protest Flags [ __ ] I have to put the sound in one second but it's 103 00:08:31,910 --> 00:08:37,459 not really important what people was laughing about him some laughs So yeah 104 00:08:37,459 --> 00:08:41,519 this is one of the hack that this is I think somebody connected with the ban 105 00:08:41,519 --> 00:08:48,709 State who was trying to remove the flag then we have like this systems of 106 00:08:48,709 --> 00:08:54,310 notification in the city that were used to play like a patriotic music during the 107 00:08:54,310 --> 00:08:59,459 protests which Belarusian state was doing trying to like you know demoralize the 108 00:08:59,459 --> 00:09:06,120 protest testers looks [ __ ] bizarre and crazy and that was the hacking part of the 109 00:09:06,120 --> 00:09:10,320 Canadian water cannon Belarusian people are very creative you can see you love 110 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:15,500 hacking we all love hacking that's how you hack the the water. 111 00:09:15,500 --> 00:09:22,529 Applause 112 00:09:22,529 --> 00:09:27,460 cannon. Later on they stopped using them because this what happened to them when 113 00:09:27,460 --> 00:09:28,870 you hack them 114 00:09:28,870 --> 00:09:29,940 Music 115 00:09:29,940 --> 00:09:39,621 yeah but they were they were very open for hacking like nothing is closed you can 116 00:09:39,621 --> 00:09:46,560 just open and take it away. Internet in Belarus right so this is a separate topic, 117 00:09:46,560 --> 00:09:50,720 we we are the country of the post Soviet so we didn't have internet for very long I 118 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:55,660 think like the general consumers market for the internet opened like beginning of 119 00:09:55,660 --> 00:10:01,620 2000s maybe middle of 2000s I got my internet connection first 2004 - 2005 so 120 00:10:01,620 --> 00:10:05,930 internet is a is a is kind of like a thing that was developing very slowly but then 121 00:10:05,930 --> 00:10:12,620 it exploded. One of the things was for example internet like U online 122 00:10:12,620 --> 00:10:19,150 infrastructure was used for the protests in 2005 2005 wrong date of the elections 123 00:10:19,150 --> 00:10:24,930 so we had like a protest camp on the streets and people set up an indymedia 124 00:10:24,930 --> 00:10:30,670 media information point which was broadcasting updates online life you know. 125 00:10:30,670 --> 00:10:34,170 And this was one of the first situations in Belarus where the website started 126 00:10:34,170 --> 00:10:38,670 getting blocked. So Belarus in IND media was the first attemp of Belarusian state 127 00:10:38,670 --> 00:10:42,800 to fight certain content on the internet there was like mirrors there was a lot of 128 00:10:42,800 --> 00:10:46,700 solidarity also from outside. So this worked pretty well for the protesters 129 00:10:46,700 --> 00:10:51,040 didn't work so well for the government the protest was smashed, but for a lot of 130 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:54,529 people the opportunity of organizing through the internet became very obvious 131 00:10:54,529 --> 00:11:00,399 and people started using it in mass later on Belarusian State started blocking from 132 00:11:00,399 --> 00:11:05,640 2016 tour network with different success of course like you can't block it with 133 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:10,680 tractors putting it on the road so you need more sufficient you know like or 134 00:11:10,680 --> 00:11:14,810 complicated systems and of course you can't get them easily in Belarus from the 135 00:11:14,810 --> 00:11:19,800 factories that are producing Rockets. You can't hit the tour network with the rocket 136 00:11:19,800 --> 00:11:24,740 so like they started searching for those and you can see that like three years 137 00:11:24,740 --> 00:11:28,000 Belarusian cops were going to security congresses where like this private 138 00:11:28,000 --> 00:11:33,060 companies was selling [ __ ] to anybody pretty much and they were searching for 139 00:11:33,060 --> 00:11:37,370 Solutions there were like for 2014 I think there was a hacking team Italian hacking 140 00:11:37,370 --> 00:11:41,180 team leak where we figure out that Belarusian state was trying to buy 141 00:11:41,180 --> 00:11:44,440 something from Italians and stuff like that, right? So at the end of the day they 142 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:48,720 got some stuff in 2016 and slowly started applying more and more censorship in on 143 00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:52,130 the internet, Anarchist websites oppositional websites starting getting 144 00:11:52,130 --> 00:11:57,560 blocked in 2020 this system like exploded in Mass so we have like hundreds and 145 00:11:57,560 --> 00:12:03,120 hundreds of the websites some of them like you know islamist [ __ ] and and stuff 146 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:06,400 like that but some of them are legit oppositional anarchists and stuff like 147 00:12:06,400 --> 00:12:13,410 that that are blocked and you can't access them through like a normal Network. Yeah 148 00:12:13,410 --> 00:12:20,690 and right now because Belarusian state was under attack for quite often from certain 149 00:12:20,690 --> 00:12:25,209 groups, a lot of websites governmental websites kind of created a white listing 150 00:12:25,209 --> 00:12:31,430 just for belarian IPs so you can't go to the belarusian state websites from outside 151 00:12:31,430 --> 00:12:36,340 so a lot of people paradoxically left the country live in Exile but use Belarusian 152 00:12:36,340 --> 00:12:42,190 VPN to know if they're included in extremist the terrorist lists. Yeah so one 153 00:12:42,190 --> 00:12:45,440 more thing about Belarusian internet and Belarusian like communication 154 00:12:45,440 --> 00:12:49,250 infrastructure is sorm, some of you have heard about it this is like a saying that 155 00:12:49,250 --> 00:12:53,160 was developed for many years and there are different versions of it and it's pretty 156 00:12:53,160 --> 00:13:00,910 much backdoor like legal back door to put into the networks of the communication 157 00:13:00,910 --> 00:13:07,389 providers before it was just a smart smartphone a cell network now it's also 158 00:13:07,389 --> 00:13:11,460 internet Network and so on internet providers you just put a black box and the 159 00:13:11,460 --> 00:13:15,310 cops somewhere on the other side of the of the country can have access to your 160 00:13:15,310 --> 00:13:19,740 network directly and they can see all the what is happening on the network and they 161 00:13:19,740 --> 00:13:25,010 you know like clone easily IDs and so on and so forth so they are like owning 162 00:13:25,010 --> 00:13:29,580 pretty much the net the private networks of the private providers also what is not 163 00:13:29,580 --> 00:13:36,070 mentioned on the slides Belarusian internet is in one way or another is 164 00:13:36,070 --> 00:13:39,890 governmental so you have like one exit for the internet to the outside world and this 165 00:13:39,890 --> 00:13:43,570 is controlled by the state and all the private companies that are working with 166 00:13:43,570 --> 00:13:47,390 the internet are actually like renting internet from the state and then reselling 167 00:13:47,390 --> 00:13:52,620 it to the private biders. Internet censorship so I was telling you that they 168 00:13:52,620 --> 00:13:57,930 were going and buying [ __ ] on the market one of the things that kind of blew out 169 00:13:57,930 --> 00:14:02,930 and we figure out in 2020 was this company sandvine you might have heard about it 170 00:14:02,930 --> 00:14:13,500 they were selling pretty much the the gear the hardware for for censoring traffic in 171 00:14:13,500 --> 00:14:16,709 the first days after elections but the network was set up already for longer so 172 00:14:16,709 --> 00:14:20,090 it was not like s Vine is rushing into Minsk and on the day of Elections but 173 00:14:20,090 --> 00:14:23,710 rather this was sold for some years before and the Belarus and state was successfully 174 00:14:23,710 --> 00:14:29,759 using it and on the day of Elections like we lost internet connection for most of 175 00:14:29,759 --> 00:14:35,459 the country. There was also coming a lot of assistance days following that from 176 00:14:35,459 --> 00:14:40,240 Russian and Chinese government who would try to you know nav help to navigate 177 00:14:40,240 --> 00:14:44,750 Belarusian government through the fact that they basically shut down not only 178 00:14:44,750 --> 00:14:47,769 like a protest infrastructure but their own infrastructure because a lot of their 179 00:14:47,769 --> 00:14:51,399 own [ __ ] was dependent on the internet and that was one of the reasons why 180 00:14:51,399 --> 00:14:55,210 internet was returned to Belarus three days later as a lot of repressive 181 00:14:55,210 --> 00:15:00,579 infrastructure was not working for the state. Yeah so those were very supportive 182 00:15:00,579 --> 00:15:05,009 of Belarusian regime and they're still doing that but there were some also 183 00:15:05,009 --> 00:15:09,430 private companies that were helping Belarus to deal with the protests 184 00:15:09,430 --> 00:15:16,470 Microsoft I mean there is a lot of pirated Microsoft installs but Skype server 185 00:15:16,470 --> 00:15:20,740 infrastructure was used for prosecuting protesters this was very handy so you 186 00:15:20,740 --> 00:15:25,069 would have a court, where there will be like just a computer standard, like it's 187 00:15:25,069 --> 00:15:28,721 not really technological country so much right? So in the court there will be a 188 00:15:28,721 --> 00:15:32,339 laptop and there would be like a guy in the Mask who would be a witness in the 189 00:15:32,339 --> 00:15:36,709 case of the of the protesters and it takes around like 2 minutes to prosecute the 190 00:15:36,709 --> 00:15:41,510 person for them to get like 15 25 days in prison. The person leaves and then there 191 00:15:41,510 --> 00:15:45,579 is a new case and quite often there were like the same cops basically testifying 192 00:15:45,579 --> 00:15:49,459 for the people on many on multiple occasions and this provided a lot of 193 00:15:49,459 --> 00:15:53,000 anonymity from one side for the infrastructure of repressions because the 194 00:15:53,000 --> 00:15:56,610 cops didn't ha:ve to be at the place and they couldn't be identified but on the 195 00:15:56,610 --> 00:16:01,680 other side it provided allso this kind of like a mobility of repressions. You don't 196 00:16:01,680 --> 00:16:05,120 need to bring another cop who would stand there and he doesn't know what to read and 197 00:16:05,120 --> 00:16:10,430 to say and so on and so forth. So this was there and this was like Skype was not in 198 00:16:10,430 --> 00:16:14,931 any way you know and Microsoft was not in any way reacting how the Belarusian state 199 00:16:14,931 --> 00:16:21,040 is using their services in the country at that .Then we had cinezis, cinezis is like 200 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:24,550 a Belarusian company that was developing a face recognition system and this smart 201 00:16:24,550 --> 00:16:30,870 City [ __ ] and all the crap you can find on the pages of the internet days. So one 202 00:16:30,870 --> 00:16:36,360 of the products they had was keypod and this was basically like a life face 203 00:16:36,360 --> 00:16:40,470 recognition system that they installed in Minsk. And this keypod was used for 204 00:16:40,470 --> 00:16:45,850 identifying also protesters during the protests and also identifying High Target 205 00:16:45,850 --> 00:16:50,420 like high political Targets in the city at some point. So for example one of the 206 00:16:50,420 --> 00:16:56,269 congress warrs an anarchist was arrested through like a common operation of keypod. 207 00:16:56,269 --> 00:16:59,560 That was telling the police that he's there so they would follow him to the 208 00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:03,600 place where he was living underground and so on and so forth. So, face recognition 209 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:08,410 system worked pretty well in certain situations right? They were also using 210 00:17:08,410 --> 00:17:13,380 like their own face recognition system for postprocess so they get images of high 211 00:17:13,380 --> 00:17:17,730 resolution from Big crowds like 100,000 people and from there they would pick up 212 00:17:17,730 --> 00:17:22,589 some faces of the protesters and this would be like ending up in the court cases 213 00:17:22,589 --> 00:17:25,860 of the people. So you would have like a print out from keod system that was saying 214 00:17:25,860 --> 00:17:31,559 okay we identify this person like this and that. The CEO of the company is like a son 215 00:17:31,559 --> 00:17:37,799 of the KGB agent so they had like a lot of connections with the state and what else 216 00:17:37,799 --> 00:17:42,620 is here? Like the company itself was trying to present itself, we are like an 217 00:17:42,620 --> 00:17:46,980 IT company that is doing just a you know like a nice thing for everybody and make 218 00:17:46,980 --> 00:17:52,321 people happy in Belarus. But reality was different and we figured that also po 219 00:17:52,321 --> 00:17:57,120 factum I think a month later there was a bigger article published on what they're 220 00:17:57,120 --> 00:18:00,530 doing and how they are basically like helping out the Belarusian state to 221 00:18:00,530 --> 00:18:07,510 suppress the uprising. And here we also have a great Corporation Called Intel that 222 00:18:07,510 --> 00:18:12,520 doesn't you know for whom money also doesn't smell it's it's very funny because 223 00:18:12,520 --> 00:18:18,409 intel was very proud of cooperating with cinezis till 2022 even though cinezis was 224 00:18:18,409 --> 00:18:22,909 on sanction under sanctions in the European Union by that time but US was not 225 00:18:22,909 --> 00:18:27,020 sanctioning. So when the fullscale war in Ukraine broke broke out cinezis ended up 226 00:18:27,020 --> 00:18:32,190 on us sanction list so intel was like okay we we this is not good imagery for us, so 227 00:18:32,190 --> 00:18:36,510 they deleted the keypod page from their website, where they were very proud of it 228 00:18:36,510 --> 00:18:42,500 but if you search keypod Intel it's you still find a Chinese page like a page in 229 00:18:42,500 --> 00:18:46,590 Chinese on the Intel website that still does like all this [ __ ] advertisement we 230 00:18:46,590 --> 00:18:49,860 are helping human rights and developing Technologies and progress and blah blah 231 00:18:49,860 --> 00:18:54,280 blah. So Intel is still partly proud of cooperating with the repressive 232 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:59,750 organization in belarus but only for the Chinese market most probably. Social 233 00:18:59,750 --> 00:19:04,490 networks, so there is like a certain you know a hype around that telegram was used 234 00:19:04,490 --> 00:19:10,000 a lot to coordinate protest and so on and so forth but reality I mean and it was 235 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:17,360 but reality the other side of the coin was that we ended up in quite a [ __ ] storm 236 00:19:17,360 --> 00:19:23,049 because people could be identified through the telegram or the way telegram is built 237 00:19:23,049 --> 00:19:28,140 through ID IDs like the unique IDs that are doesn't matter if you change the phone 238 00:19:28,140 --> 00:19:32,640 number and so on and so forth. So a lot of people ended up being prosecuted because 239 00:19:32,640 --> 00:19:38,159 they did some [ __ ] on telegram and in like the further we went after repressions 240 00:19:38,159 --> 00:19:42,620 of the uprising the more ridiculous those could be, like even putting you know a [ 241 00:19:42,620 --> 00:19:48,150 __ ] Emoji under information that a KGB agent was shot during a raid would be 242 00:19:48,150 --> 00:19:54,830 enough to start criminal prosecution against you. So those things became very 243 00:19:54,830 --> 00:19:58,880 problematic and at the end of the day we've seen that Belarusian in state is 244 00:19:58,880 --> 00:20:04,130 observing not only telegram but also other social networks. Telegram at that point 245 00:20:04,130 --> 00:20:07,620 was not really Cooperative with belarussian State and they were still 246 00:20:07,620 --> 00:20:11,860 selling like Durov was still selling this you know image of we are like for the 247 00:20:11,860 --> 00:20:18,470 human rights and for people and all this [ __ ] but by the time like a year later 248 00:20:18,470 --> 00:20:24,140 we ended up with a situation when the protest like died out that Durov started 249 00:20:24,140 --> 00:20:28,620 blocking like telegram started blocking certain website certain [ __ ] not 250 00:20:28,620 --> 00:20:33,480 websites certain channels in telegram that were for example dedoxing police or 251 00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:38,070 documenting police violence and and court cases and so on and so forth. So those 252 00:20:38,070 --> 00:20:41,660 channels are for example like U there is a channel that is called Belarusian 253 00:20:41,660 --> 00:20:44,900 punishers that has a list of police officers who were responsible for the 254 00:20:44,900 --> 00:20:52,309 violence and this is blocked on Telegram and you can't find it. Official point of 255 00:20:52,309 --> 00:20:56,500 like telegram this is not us saying, they said okay Apple actually forced us to do 256 00:20:56,500 --> 00:21:01,230 that but reality is that it goes both ways. You know like you have to cooperate 257 00:21:01,230 --> 00:21:05,880 with each other for this to to happen and this was happening on one side on the 258 00:21:05,880 --> 00:21:12,220 other side telegram was blocking also channels of the same kind of groups in 259 00:21:12,220 --> 00:21:16,150 Russia that were also dedoxing cops who were using violence and who were 260 00:21:16,150 --> 00:21:20,880 participating in repressions even after the fullscale invasion. So we see a lot of 261 00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:25,559 censorship and a lot of cooperation happening after like the protest, so 262 00:21:25,559 --> 00:21:29,010 during the the active phase like they would be like yeah we standing with you 263 00:21:29,010 --> 00:21:33,680 and you're almost one so we would like to be with you but when you know they see 264 00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:37,529 that the status quo is maintained they start cooperating they start like 265 00:21:37,529 --> 00:21:42,490 following the laws of the country even if those laws are oppressive or doesn't make 266 00:21:42,490 --> 00:21:47,680 any [ __ ] sense and so on and so forth. Yeah and vkontakte, I think you know this 267 00:21:47,680 --> 00:21:52,710 is like a social network in Russia, they are like completely working with FSB and 268 00:21:52,710 --> 00:21:56,140 and [ __ ] and Belarusian State also has pretty much direct access on what you're 269 00:21:56,140 --> 00:22:01,970 doing there. So there there were some people organizing but for even like normal 270 00:22:01,970 --> 00:22:06,020 people it became clear that like don't use Russian social networks, this is like a 271 00:22:06,020 --> 00:22:10,770 bad idea and then apparently you shouldn't use Chinese social networks and maybe 272 00:22:10,770 --> 00:22:15,400 don't use social networks in general because a lot of them have like a 273 00:22:15,400 --> 00:22:19,330 potential of repressions of not on the individuals but the social movements and 274 00:22:19,330 --> 00:22:25,940 and [ __ ] like that. Mobile phones and data collection. So what did we figure out 275 00:22:25,940 --> 00:22:32,340 during the protests and and the last years celebrate of course they are [ __ ] happy 276 00:22:32,340 --> 00:22:37,820 to to sell themselves to any repressive regime so Belarus is not an exception and 277 00:22:37,820 --> 00:22:41,760 they they're they they were used they're still used so belarusan state is still 278 00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:46,659 buying celebrite licenses through some third party companies and I mean sanctions 279 00:22:46,659 --> 00:22:50,400 is is a [ __ ] joke in general. And even the companies who are saying we are not 280 00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:55,721 doing that in most cases they are doing that but through the third party. Data 281 00:22:55,721 --> 00:23:01,159 dumps so through cellebride but through other certain other companies you just get 282 00:23:01,159 --> 00:23:06,460 like a set of phones right and I don't know there would be like 500 people 283 00:23:06,460 --> 00:23:11,140 detained there would be all the phones confiscated and the cops would be dumping 284 00:23:11,140 --> 00:23:16,559 all the data from those phones and then you know like they wouldn't have a time to 285 00:23:16,559 --> 00:23:20,320 go through this data at the point but then you might be prosecuted in half a year 286 00:23:20,320 --> 00:23:26,220 later for what they found from those phones. And also you know like there is a 287 00:23:26,220 --> 00:23:30,020 lot discussions you're the Congress as well and in general in the security 288 00:23:30,020 --> 00:23:34,169 Community the strong passwords you know encryption is very important but we 289 00:23:34,169 --> 00:23:40,120 figured out that you know encryption works very bad if they're torturing you. And 290 00:23:40,120 --> 00:23:43,590 that was the Belarusian like way to break encryption, they didn't try to you know 291 00:23:43,590 --> 00:23:48,220 make a technological way into this, but rather they [ __ ] you up to the point 292 00:23:48,220 --> 00:23:52,700 where you decide okay I rather die or I give them the password and quite often it 293 00:23:52,700 --> 00:23:57,120 worked pretty well and it worked also in the way like not retrospectively but in a 294 00:23:57,120 --> 00:24:02,370 in a threaten way so you know, okay some people were tortured to get access to the 295 00:24:02,370 --> 00:24:05,970 encrypted drives and other people would be like okay I give you the password without 296 00:24:05,970 --> 00:24:11,831 torture. So encryption doesn't work against torture in Belarusian State and in 297 00:24:11,831 --> 00:24:17,190 many other cases and this is yeah it doesn't matter how perfect your security 298 00:24:17,190 --> 00:24:23,169 system built technologically wise quite often the human factor is still the the 299 00:24:23,169 --> 00:24:27,320 the weakest link in the whole situation. Then we had situations where the cops were 300 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:30,900 impersonating activists. Up to the point where they were registering like for 301 00:24:30,900 --> 00:24:34,620 example on the dating apps and putting like naked pictures that they would get 302 00:24:34,620 --> 00:24:38,429 from the data damps and so on and then people would be calling those activists 303 00:24:38,429 --> 00:24:42,980 hooking up with them and so on and so forth. Sim cloning that's a huge thing 304 00:24:42,980 --> 00:24:49,690 that I think people should [ __ ] like get engraved in their like brain that's that 305 00:24:49,690 --> 00:24:53,250 your phone and the SIM cards that you get do not belong to you you are like 306 00:24:53,250 --> 00:24:57,179 borrowing them from the companies and quite often if the companies have or the 307 00:24:57,179 --> 00:25:01,510 state has access to the companies then the state owns those and that means the state 308 00:25:01,510 --> 00:25:05,110 owns your [ __ ] phone number and that means phone number is not unique 309 00:25:05,110 --> 00:25:11,210 identification. So we had a lot of situations where telegram accounts were 310 00:25:11,210 --> 00:25:15,549 hijacked by the state just by you know like cloning the SIM card and getting all 311 00:25:15,549 --> 00:25:21,700 the access and normal person wouldn't put a password on your account. Yeah so be 312 00:25:21,700 --> 00:25:27,830 aware of that and please like stop using that for your you know technological 313 00:25:27,830 --> 00:25:32,501 things you're doing or software that you are developing this is not a secure way in 314 00:25:32,501 --> 00:25:40,350 any way. This also goes to Signal people. Traffic analysis yes as I was mentioning 315 00:25:40,350 --> 00:25:44,390 like the [ __ ] storm is there so they're trying to identify what people are doing 316 00:25:44,390 --> 00:25:48,380 and this might be also a reason for a house rate or something like that if your 317 00:25:48,380 --> 00:25:55,649 traffic looks suspicious. Resistance so resistance unfortunately is very low 318 00:25:55,649 --> 00:26:02,250 technologically speaking so there's not so much of like you know laser rifles and [ 319 00:26:02,250 --> 00:26:05,910 __ ] like that. But rather and and and that's like unfortunately the story of 320 00:26:05,910 --> 00:26:11,820 resistance against authoritarian regimes, that normally even when the state has like 321 00:26:11,820 --> 00:26:16,380 very sophisticated heat guns and [ __ ] like that people end up on the streets 322 00:26:16,380 --> 00:26:21,500 with the stones and sticks and that was the case also in Belarus. However people 323 00:26:21,500 --> 00:26:26,799 started learning Technologies very fast so there were a lot of people who learned how 324 00:26:26,799 --> 00:26:33,260 to use toxy tor VPN, you see how the whole usage of those Services spiked during the 325 00:26:33,260 --> 00:26:37,529 protest and this is not like you know your 20 30 year old friends but rather like 326 00:26:37,529 --> 00:26:42,580 older people 50 60 who were forced into doing that, because they are interested in 327 00:26:42,580 --> 00:26:46,130 joining the protest. So to be part of the protest you actually have to learn how to 328 00:26:46,130 --> 00:26:51,179 do those. We also figured out that mesh networks although it's such a great idea 329 00:26:51,179 --> 00:26:55,700 and maybe one day on the other planet it will work out but for your average 330 00:26:55,700 --> 00:27:00,440 protester and average participant in in like an anti-authoritarian uprising this 331 00:27:00,440 --> 00:27:04,559 is not the case you can't [ __ ] get them working and people are not really capable 332 00:27:04,559 --> 00:27:09,279 of of using them. Destruction of surveillance property so there were people 333 00:27:09,279 --> 00:27:13,120 who would just go around and smash the [ __ ] cameras that was the way to resist 334 00:27:13,120 --> 00:27:18,789 the facial recognition system. Hacking of infrastructure so there were a lot of 335 00:27:18,789 --> 00:27:23,930 different attempts and the biggest one I think was hacking into the ID database 336 00:27:23,930 --> 00:27:28,830 where which brought like a lot of other stuff so there databases of all this 337 00:27:28,830 --> 00:27:32,960 Belarusian citizens their criminal records and and [ __ ] like that available to 338 00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:38,850 certain groups right now and this gives also opportunity to look into police 339 00:27:38,850 --> 00:27:43,500 activity and what the cops are doing what they own where they work and so on and so 340 00:27:43,500 --> 00:27:49,890 Forth. The doxxing of the police officers and regime functions like the judges and 341 00:27:49,890 --> 00:27:54,559 other bureaucrats basically as I was mentioning like on telegram you have this 342 00:27:54,559 --> 00:27:59,769 whole list like thousands and tens of thousands of people there is also a map so 343 00:27:59,769 --> 00:28:04,000 you can have a look if you're living next to a [ __ ] in your house who is like a 344 00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:07,490 colonel of repression operatus or something like that so this is also 345 00:28:07,490 --> 00:28:11,399 helping a lot but it also build up a lot of pressure on the police because police 346 00:28:11,399 --> 00:28:15,410 apparently think if you know if you know the address of the police officer most 347 00:28:15,410 --> 00:28:19,020 probably you will go and smash his [ __ ] house and kill everybody and so on which 348 00:28:19,020 --> 00:28:23,580 didn't didn't happen but it did provide a certain pressure on the repression 349 00:28:23,580 --> 00:28:29,420 apparatus. We also ended up with the solution for like what do you do when the 350 00:28:29,420 --> 00:28:34,169 cops torture you for your password for encrypted hard drive you break your hard 351 00:28:34,169 --> 00:28:38,381 drive and sometimes maybe you wouldn't be able to break your hard drive so you do 352 00:28:38,381 --> 00:28:42,730 like this thing that they do in the movies you know in US you break the screen. *some 353 00:28:42,730 --> 00:28:47,840 laughs* Really bizarre right but it works the the point here and I'm not talking 354 00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:51,580 about the laptop the point here is you have a smartphone and there you have 355 00:28:51,580 --> 00:28:57,519 something going on so if you smash it the average Riot cob guy doesn't know what 356 00:28:57,519 --> 00:29:03,450 what to do with it, so he can't torture you to open it right it doesn't work. And 357 00:29:03,450 --> 00:29:07,200 that was like a solution for a lot of activist so basically if you are in the 358 00:29:07,200 --> 00:29:12,690 danger of being arrested you just break the phone and you have this buffer time 359 00:29:12,690 --> 00:29:16,990 when the cops arrest you put you in jail and blah blah blah and this expert comes 360 00:29:16,990 --> 00:29:21,450 who knows how to you know open the phone that has a broken screen. And that's kind 361 00:29:21,450 --> 00:29:26,480 of like a place where most of the torture happens so you're capable of avoiding and 362 00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:31,549 the cops also figured out that pretty fast so they started trying to get you arrested 363 00:29:31,549 --> 00:29:35,059 before you break that and I have a story like of a friend who you know like who was 364 00:29:35,059 --> 00:29:38,320 laying on the ground and he was putting his hand in the pocket and like smashing 365 00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:42,570 the screen and he did it and the cops were like how did you do that we were formed 366 00:29:42,570 --> 00:29:47,000 sitting on you you couldn't [ __ ] move so these kind of things and these kind of 367 00:29:47,000 --> 00:29:53,210 things I think saved at least a health of certain people and also there was a lot of 368 00:29:53,210 --> 00:29:57,929 online education where there were like workshops for the people how to figure out 369 00:29:57,929 --> 00:30:02,490 out their smartphone security their telegram security and [ __ ] like that. 370 00:30:02,490 --> 00:30:06,669 This is one of the examples of online education that is not connected with the 371 00:30:06,669 --> 00:30:11,279 security of the smartphones it is more about production of new technologies 372 00:30:11,279 --> 00:30:17,230 right? In Belarus not connected the tractors and those are like just to 373 00:30:17,230 --> 00:30:22,810 immobilize the police Vans Yeah so this this was a lot of this kind of online 374 00:30:22,810 --> 00:30:27,130 education as well the interesting fact again that a lot of people were afraid to 375 00:30:27,130 --> 00:30:31,850 put to do that online education because eventually on many social networks you can 376 00:30:31,850 --> 00:30:38,130 get banned for that like if you put you know how do you say a video how to make 377 00:30:38,130 --> 00:30:44,240 molotov cocktail this is considered illegal activity and you know your account 378 00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:54,210 can be banned and [ __ ] like that and I think people in not in the first World War 379 00:30:54,210 --> 00:30:59,159 figure that out a lot. Like people who are in in Palestine and in many other places 380 00:30:59,159 --> 00:31:02,850 figure that you know the repressions are working from the private companies against 381 00:31:02,850 --> 00:31:07,990 them when they're fighting against the regimes. Conclusions so this is a small 382 00:31:07,990 --> 00:31:12,710 sticker that says if you can't break the dictatorship you can still burn it down. 383 00:31:12,710 --> 00:31:15,549 laughter 384 00:31:15,549 --> 00:31:21,320 Conclusions are very short there they can there is a lot to talk about. Capitalism 385 00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:27,460 is [ __ ] evil I mean hundreds of years of this [ __ ] up story you I hope all of you 386 00:31:27,460 --> 00:31:31,210 figured this out this is not really a [ __ ] mystery you know you don't have to come 387 00:31:31,210 --> 00:31:36,049 from USSR indoctrinated by Marxism leninism to know that capitalism is evil 388 00:31:36,049 --> 00:31:39,960 and capitalism 389 00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:43,980 Many Applaus 390 00:31:43,980 --> 00:31:48,059 and capitalism destroys lives not only here you know like in in Germany in US or 391 00:31:48,059 --> 00:31:52,120 whatever and your political life but it destroys lives everywhere in Belarus, 392 00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:56,730 Myanmar, Hong Kong, Syria like the [ __ ] corporations and the [ __ ] private 393 00:31:56,730 --> 00:32:02,570 business is ready to sell anything even their [ __ ] mothers and brothers and 394 00:32:02,570 --> 00:32:09,820 sisters to the dictators just to make money. Your phone number is not a good ID 395 00:32:09,820 --> 00:32:14,360 it's a bad ID don't [ __ ] use it ever because it can be easily identified in 396 00:32:14,360 --> 00:32:19,260 Germany as well in many other countries it is like it it's a [ __ ] like if giving a 397 00:32:19,260 --> 00:32:23,149 passport. Just when you are registering with your phone number just imagine that 398 00:32:23,149 --> 00:32:25,909 you're giving a passport to some company right? 399 00:32:25,909 --> 00:32:28,660 Someone from the audience: taking pictures. 400 00:32:28,660 --> 00:32:34,470 Boris: Yeah password is a good thing, still, many years after you can also 401 00:32:34,470 --> 00:32:39,700 forget it. You get a concussion you forget it, you get tortured you forget it, 402 00:32:39,700 --> 00:32:44,490 password is good right? Surveillance is good for the state bad for society so all 403 00:32:44,490 --> 00:32:50,500 those corporations that are selling right now also in Western world the business of 404 00:32:50,500 --> 00:32:55,830 surveillance they are destroying the social glue of the society and this is 405 00:32:55,830 --> 00:33:00,279 like a different topic but but in general like surveillance is destructive for us as 406 00:33:00,279 --> 00:33:05,870 a humankind. Western private companies are crucial for the dictatorship, we are not 407 00:33:05,870 --> 00:33:09,110 living in the world where you know like the dictators have horses and they are 408 00:33:09,110 --> 00:33:14,529 riding them into the crowd and like w hooray but rather a lot of technologies 409 00:33:14,529 --> 00:33:19,600 that are used by the state by the Belarusian state but also by Syrian state, 410 00:33:19,600 --> 00:33:23,250 by Russian state are not the technologies that were developed within the small 411 00:33:23,250 --> 00:33:27,690 states by the local companies but rather a lot of technologies that were brought in 412 00:33:27,690 --> 00:33:32,450 and developed in this countries where we are sitting you know? And they were 413 00:33:32,450 --> 00:33:38,500 developed under certain freedom but at the same time they are now used to engrave the 414 00:33:38,500 --> 00:33:42,929 dictatorship and those dictatorships are spreading like Russia wants to [ __ ] 415 00:33:42,929 --> 00:33:48,250 conquer half of the Europe so you have to be aware of that and you have to like WE 416 00:33:48,250 --> 00:33:53,039 have to fight that back. This is not you know whether it is should be done or not 417 00:33:53,039 --> 00:33:58,130 it is more like how much energy and how [ __ ] your ass should be on on fire to 418 00:33:58,130 --> 00:34:05,070 fight those. Smart also doesn't mean smart and by that I mean that a lot of Engineers 419 00:34:05,070 --> 00:34:08,700 believe that they they you know they can open a [ __ ] Wikipedia page, so they know 420 00:34:08,700 --> 00:34:14,600 everything about the world. But it is not the case a lot of Engineers fail miserably 421 00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:18,609 in understanding how the world is working how the society is working so if we 422 00:34:18,609 --> 00:34:23,139 develop technological solutions to certain problems we do have to work with 423 00:34:23,139 --> 00:34:27,879 sociologists Political scientists with activists to understand how those 424 00:34:27,879 --> 00:34:31,400 technologies will influence the world you know: 425 00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:38,290 very many ovations 426 00:34:38,290 --> 00:34:42,929 The time is [ __ ] running out and I'm not talking about all only about ecological 427 00:34:42,929 --> 00:34:47,690 catastrophe but also technologically speaking. We are in the race with you know 428 00:34:47,690 --> 00:34:52,890 the dictators and authoritarian regimes who want to enforce and make their regime 429 00:34:52,890 --> 00:34:57,720 stronger through Technologies, face recognition systems and all this [ __ ] 430 00:34:57,720 --> 00:35:03,180 that is making the state way stronger against the society so yeah get your [ __ 431 00:35:03,180 --> 00:35:08,060 ] done and get your [ __ ] like going already now today, you know. And digital 432 00:35:08,060 --> 00:35:12,810 resistance is part of a broader Uprising so do not see yourself you know as a 433 00:35:12,810 --> 00:35:16,690 hackers community that exist in isolated world and you're in a bubble and [ __ ] 434 00:35:16,690 --> 00:35:21,400 like that but rather if we want to stop like technological dictatorships or 435 00:35:21,400 --> 00:35:25,240 whatever [ __ ] you can imagine we actually have to work together, 436 00:35:25,240 --> 00:35:29,490 technological activists, Street activists, Community organizers all of those get 437 00:35:29,490 --> 00:35:32,320 together and fight against the dictatorships fight against the 438 00:35:32,320 --> 00:35:36,920 authoritarian attacks on us, on our society, on our families, on our friends 439 00:35:36,920 --> 00:35:38,150 and only then we can win thank you! 440 00:35:38,150 --> 00:35:39,150 Applause 441 00:35:39,150 --> 00:35:40,150 Music 442 00:35:40,150 --> 00:36:14,071 Angel: I have one more thing ... Boris: And don't forget to donate to our 443 00:36:14,071 --> 00:36:17,440 group we are not like getting money for ourselves we're collecting money for the 444 00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:22,859 political prisoners so don't forget to do that this is an important part of just 445 00:36:22,859 --> 00:36:33,109 supporting the struggle. Angel: Yeah Applaus so we have a couple 446 00:36:33,109 --> 00:36:38,680 minutes for questions but if you have to leave, leave super quietly and also a 447 00:36:38,680 --> 00:36:43,650 question is a short sentence with a question mark behind it not a long essay. 448 00:36:43,650 --> 00:36:48,981 I have chat GPT for that and we have a question from the the signal Angel by the 449 00:36:48,981 --> 00:36:53,570 way the microphones are up front here here 1 2 3 4 that's where you have to stand in 450 00:36:53,570 --> 00:36:56,590 order to do a question signal Angel go ahead. 451 00:36:56,590 --> 00:37:02,750 Signal Angel: Yes the internet wants to know what you expect Microsoft or Skype to 452 00:37:02,750 --> 00:37:08,170 do for example blocking Belarus as a whole or wouldn't that also negatively impact 453 00:37:08,170 --> 00:37:13,800 the activist? What's your opinion on that? Boris: I mean I don't think that blocking 454 00:37:13,800 --> 00:37:19,349 Skype like or Skype stopping providing services in bellus would negatively affect 455 00:37:19,349 --> 00:37:24,800 activist scene, nobody in activist scene was using Skype right? On the other side 456 00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:28,780 like you do have mechanisms of black listing cord IPS at least you know like 457 00:37:28,780 --> 00:37:33,300 this is Belarusian state is not you know super sophisticated going to connect to 458 00:37:33,300 --> 00:37:36,300 the [ __ ] bpn and [ __ ] like that, but rather you block those and the court is 459 00:37:36,300 --> 00:37:40,200 already not doing that. The thing with the Microsoft and Skype is that it's story of 460 00:37:40,200 --> 00:37:44,870 the past because right now they switched to Viber so like this is this is gone, 461 00:37:44,870 --> 00:37:49,220 like they did their part and nobody will most probably remember that and I mean 462 00:37:49,220 --> 00:37:52,260 honestly [ __ ] Microsoft. 463 00:37:52,260 --> 00:37:54,920 few ovations 464 00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:58,089 Angel: We're running out of time question for Num 3. 465 00:37:58,089 --> 00:38:06,270 -Okay I have a question how much would a better and more secure VPN technology and 466 00:38:06,270 --> 00:38:12,579 better anonymizing systems help in these kinds of situations and what what has the 467 00:38:12,579 --> 00:38:18,370 Bella russian State done against using VPS into foreign countries? 468 00:38:18,370 --> 00:38:24,079 B: I mean in the first days of the protests in the first days of the uprising 469 00:38:24,079 --> 00:38:27,990 the whole internet infrastructure was gone. Like there were certain ways to go 470 00:38:27,990 --> 00:38:32,010 around the blocking that were connected with telegram proxies, I have no [ __ ] 471 00:38:32,010 --> 00:38:35,970 clue how they managed to do it successfully but they did and in general 472 00:38:35,970 --> 00:38:38,960 like the internet was just not working. So it doesn't matter if you have VPN and a 473 00:38:38,960 --> 00:38:45,920 Tor, the internet doesn't work and later on when they unlocked the internet they 474 00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:52,250 were very slow in reacting to the fast protest community so in those cases VPNs 475 00:38:52,250 --> 00:38:57,140 very important somehow but for us at that point the the local organizing and 476 00:38:57,140 --> 00:39:02,250 providing infrastructure for the local organizers was way more important. So also 477 00:39:02,250 --> 00:39:05,630 like building decentralized networks inside of the country sometimes is way 478 00:39:05,630 --> 00:39:09,609 more crucial to the protests than getting out to the services that are outside of 479 00:39:09,609 --> 00:39:14,819 the country and that's what was happening as well. But in general like it's still an 480 00:39:14,819 --> 00:39:19,680 important part of fighting back like having a reliable VPN or any other 481 00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:28,329 anonymizing and like censorship circumsing Technologies. How to develop those more 482 00:39:28,329 --> 00:39:31,290 successfully? I have no [ __ ] clue honestly. Because those like the fight 483 00:39:31,290 --> 00:39:37,720 against those are going on very fast and I like I can't answer this, I'm very sorry. 484 00:39:37,720 --> 00:39:41,900 Herald: So we might be able to squeeze in another two questions very briefly. on 485 00:39:41,900 --> 00:39:46,470 number one. -How bad is the suppression of the APC 486 00:39:46,470 --> 00:39:51,010 Belarus activists and can you safely reside inside Belarus without getting 487 00:39:51,010 --> 00:39:54,930 arrested immediately or do you have to flee into Exile? 488 00:39:54,930 --> 00:40:03,119 B: Like in general not talking only about us but the bigger political spectrum of 489 00:40:03,119 --> 00:40:06,250 all the groups that are providing solidarity work all of them are gone like 490 00:40:06,250 --> 00:40:11,240 from Belarus. So all of the activists from Liberal also human right defending groups 491 00:40:11,240 --> 00:40:15,640 and so on had to leave and if you would be identified as a member of such a group 492 00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:19,710 inside of the country this would be enough to prosecute you and to put I mean any 493 00:40:19,710 --> 00:40:24,460 case they want on you. This is not a you know like a legal state but rather they 494 00:40:24,460 --> 00:40:28,810 prosecute you and that's it. And with the case of activist Anarchist activists in 495 00:40:28,810 --> 00:40:35,619 general there are laws that would allow them to make a group extremist 496 00:40:35,619 --> 00:40:39,819 organization that doesn't need a core decision and through that you can get like 497 00:40:39,819 --> 00:40:45,420 five six seven years in prison easily without any other actions you know. And 498 00:40:45,420 --> 00:40:51,410 this is happening to certain solidarity groups already yeah. So we also have in 499 00:40:51,410 --> 00:40:56,460 tomorrow in like a self-organized sessions a bigger presentation another collegue 500 00:40:56,460 --> 00:41:01,310 will be doing that about repressions in Belarus about the political situation less 501 00:41:01,310 --> 00:41:05,460 like focused on Technologies more focused on social political situation so if you 502 00:41:05,460 --> 00:41:09,960 want to know a little bit more about that you can come there and ask your questions 503 00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:12,550 and and [ __ ] like that. Herald: I would suggest that for anybody 504 00:41:12,550 --> 00:41:16,339 in the room but we will take one last question very briefly from the signal 505 00:41:16,339 --> 00:41:18,640 Angel and then we'll have to call it quits unfortunately. 506 00:41:18,640 --> 00:41:24,440 Signal Engel: Yes another question regarding the use of encryption. It is if 507 00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:30,290 theography is used with to encryption or instead of encryption in Belarus by 508 00:41:30,290 --> 00:41:35,369 activists. B: I mean we do not have so many people 509 00:41:35,369 --> 00:41:39,720 who were like technologically savvy and were participating in the protests that's 510 00:41:39,720 --> 00:41:45,210 why nobody was hiding messages like that but we did have like a collective for 511 00:41:45,210 --> 00:41:51,780 example that developed a telegram app that would have like a double I don't know 512 00:41:51,780 --> 00:41:58,530 how it's in English like a double something double like basically you have 513 00:41:58,530 --> 00:42:04,760 two accounts in the telegram and one of those accounts like is is is a very nice 514 00:42:04,760 --> 00:42:08,840 fluffy you don't do anything and that's where what the cops see and then you need 515 00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:14,839 to put a password to get another one so we got like this kind of hiding your activity 516 00:42:14,839 --> 00:42:20,470 on the internet but this was I think like the biggest people can imagine using on 517 00:42:20,470 --> 00:42:25,020 their smartphones. In general like we have to understand that technological savy is 518 00:42:25,020 --> 00:42:28,849 dropping right people when people are using smartphones they know less about 519 00:42:28,849 --> 00:42:33,390 Technologies than they did like 10 years ago so people are capable of doing less 520 00:42:33,390 --> 00:42:36,390 and less and less yeah. Herald: So that's all the questions we can 521 00:42:36,390 --> 00:42:40,763 take please help me thank him for this wonderful talk something we never and... 522 00:42:40,763 --> 00:42:41,763 B: Thanks for doing it! 523 00:42:41,763 --> 00:42:43,501 a lot of ovations 524 00:42:43,501 --> 00:42:51,595 37c postroll music 525 00:42:51,595 --> 00:43:04,840 Subtitles created by many many volunteers and the c3subtitles.de team. Join us, and help us!