Recently, my friends in the social network Vkontakte began to repost a very old "duck" which is already about a year. It begins like this: "Since Monday, the old VK program is being deleted ..." Having read the text of this message, I just smiled and forgot. But when I saw a dozen reposts from friends, it made me worry and write an article on this topic ...
In Ukraine, Vkontakte has already been closed
Since then, the country has made some progress in breaking with its Soviet legacy. Nevertheless, the government is still taking steps that seem more appropriate for a new authoritarian regime than for a beginning European democracy.
Earlier this week, President Petro Poroshenko announced a ban on several Russian Internet firms. Among the victims - many Russian defense firms and state news agencies. In practice, these measures can be counterproductive. Tens of millions of users can be affected by bans on the social network and e-mail. User posts provided valuable evidence for digital detectives to prove Russia's participation in the war. Internet providers said that the application of the ban would be difficult, if not impossible.
To begin with, I give the full text of this post:
"The social network" Vkontakte "will be closed from next week, I will leave this record so that my photos, correspondence, etc. do not scatter over the Internet.
In response to the new "VKontakte" policy, I hereby declare that all my personal data, photographs, drawings, correspondence and so on are the objects of my copyright (according to the Bern Convention). For the commercial use of all the above-mentioned objects of copyright in each particular case, my written permission is required.
Is it true that VKontakte will be closed on Monday?
More Ukrainians can start using virtual private networks that redirect user traffic to avoid such firewalls. But for Mr. Poroshenko, anti-Russian rhetoric may be more important than concrete results. His popularity rating plunged, as his government's austerity measures infringed on revenues, and reforms in the fight against corruption wavered. Even ineffective manifestations of patriotism are losing well to voters. Some opponents of Mr. Poroshenko's opponent see this as preparation for his presidential election campaign in Poroshenko - this is switching the focus of public discussion from the fight against corruption to his pseudo-patriotism, "wrote Sergei Leshchenko, a lawmaker who criticizes the president.
Everyone who reads this text, can copy it to his wall in "VKontakte". After that, you will be protected by copyright laws. This communiqué informs VKontakte that the disclosure, copying, dissemination of my personal information or any other unlawful actions in relation to my profile on the social network is strictly prohibited. "
Regardless of what the ban can provide at home, it has violated European allies of Ukraine. The head of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, said that this step was contrary to "our common understanding of freedom of expression". Many noted that the club of countries that restrict access to social networks includes an aggressive neighbor, with whom Ukraine likes to complain. As the head of Human Rights Watch said, Kenneth Roth wrote: "When he learns that imitating reprisals in Russia will not be able to distinguish himself from Russia?"
It was announced on Tuesday, April 22, that Russia left Russia, causing tension with the authorities, in the face of an increasingly difficult situation for Internet users in Russia. Alexei Navalny, who is under house arrest, was also found guilty on Tuesday of "defamation" against the deputy and sentenced to a fine of 1,000 rubles.
So, let's begin to disassemble the text of this "warning" in detail. (The article is designed for ordinary Internet users, so I will not use complex terms.)
"Because from Monday the old VK program is deleted, I will leave this record so that my photos, correspondence, etc. do not scatter over the Internet. " According to the author of this message Vkontakte is a single program in which all user data is located and when you delete this program all the data miraculously flies across the Internet .... From the first words it is clear that this message is intended for people who are not at all familiar with the arrangement of Web sites. All the users of VKontakte are located on the servers of the company. All programs and even the site itself Vk.com just take information from the servers and output it to users. In addition, there are many programs for Vkontakte, in addition to official clients for various devices, there are also unofficial clients that work to this day.
A conviction that threatens to see his five-year suspended sentence imposed on another fraud, which he claims to be overturning, turns into a prison. This issue must be resolved in a later decision. This nationalist-minded lawyer, who made himself known by condemning cases of corruption on the Internet, came out in silence about this, imposed by his house arrest, to proclaim his innocence in another case that threatened him and his brother.
Is the entire population under surveillance? Last week another draft bill on the protection of schools against terrorism offered online monitoring of students. According to the text, the heads of Russian universities will be responsible for "analyzing the personal websites of students and employees" and preparing files for those "who tend to break the rules."
"In response to the new VKontakte policy, I hereby declare that all my personal data, photographs, drawings, correspondence and so on are the objects of my copyright (according to the Bern Convention). For the commercial use of all the above-mentioned objects of copyright in each particular case, my written permission is required. "
It would seem a very serious statement with reference to such a document as the "Berne Convention". But even here everything is not so honest, as the author shows. "The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works" is the name of this document, signed in the 19th century and revised in 1979. Naturally, this document does not apply to Vkontakte and the Internet as a whole (it simply did not exist then).
VKontakte is now a public company. That's why all users of this social network are recommended to post on their pages a similar "privacy notice", otherwise (if the notice is not published on the page at least once), you automatically resolve any use of data from your page, your photos and information published in messages on the wall of your page.
"Everyone who reads this text, can copy it to his wall in VKontakte." After that, you will be protected by copyright laws. This communiqué informs VKontakte that the disclosure, copying, dissemination of my personal information or any other unlawful actions in relation to my profile on the social network is strictly prohibited "
But this paragraph of the message is just a lie, and not even covered up. And I'll tell you why. According to the legislation of the Russian Federation, the content created by the author is already protected by law and additional actions, to protect it (in our case posting this message) is not required. The Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Article 1259, paragraph 4 states: "The registration of a work or the observance of any other formalities is not required for the origin, implementation and protection of copyright."
Moreover, all user data are protected by Federal Law No. 152-FZ of July 27, 2006 "On Personal Data" and no additional actions are required on the part of the user.
Still, the author's words are not entirely clear: " VKontakte now is a public company ». As the publicity of the company refers to personal data - remains a big secret.
From this brief "investigation" it becomes clear that this message is a lie, or in the language of the Internet: a duck.
07:00, 02.03.2017 47
Herman Klimenko laughed at the ridiculous spam-attack on users of the popular Russian social network
March 6, 2017 could be a day of mourning for users of the popular Russian social network "VKontakte" (since late February, the resource is spreading the message about its imminent blocking), but the next closure of the site was not destined to happen. "Real time" decided to understand the situation and collected five facts about the problems of the popular social network.
Why will not March 6 become a "day of sorrow"?
Since the end of February on the social network "VKontakte" "message" about the imminent closure of the resource, and on the eve of the publication with the same content, fasted spammers at a rate of once a minute. In the test of the post is called the specific closing date - March 6, 2017 - and the responsible person who made the official statement is Herman Klimenko, who, according to the authors of the message, is the press secretary of the "VK" (in fact Klimenko is the adviser to the president of the Russian Federation on Internet issues).
Herman Klimenko has already commented on the situation to the press, saying that everyone is frankly laughing at this message, and he is not a spokesman for the social network, which, incidentally, will not be closed.
Note that even such a clumsy delivery of the message could cause a small surge of panic and increased attention to the news about the closure of the resource. At the same time, users of the social network were frightened by the fact that after blocking the "VC", their personal information would be publicly available, and to avoid this, they need to copy this message to their walls.
Herman Klimenko has already commented on the situation to the press, saying that everyone is frankly laughing at this message, and he is not a spokesman for the social network, which, incidentally, will not be closed. Photo by rosbalt.ru
Accidents in data centers "VC" and regular failures
Rumors about the upcoming closure of the "VC" have notably warmed up a large-scale malfunction in the social network, which occurred at the beginning of this week and lasted for several hours. But it should be noted that VKontakte, like any other resource, is at risk of being unavailable for a number of technical reasons.
In general, in the history of the "VC" there are several major failures in the work. One of the most notable occurred on July 25, 2010: more than four hours the site remained inaccessible due to a power outage in the data center. Another failure occurred on July 27, 2014: then, as a result of the accident in one of the data centers, the site was also unavailable to users.
August 4, 2015 the site "VKontakte" remained inaccessible for more than two hours. According to the press service of the company, the cause of the malfunction was the physical rupture of the cable connecting the data centers. Later it was reported that the cause of the failure was "a fatal confluence of a number of circumstances." Increased cases of inaccessibility of "VKontakte" led to the popularization of a hashtag on # Twitter.
In all to blame Pavel Durov?
In addition to the hashtag among users, the opinion spread that regular disruptions in work began exactly after Pavel Durov left the company. April 1, 2014 on his page "VKontakte" Durov announced that he was leaving the post of general director of the company.
In his address, the founder of the social network argued that in 2013 the freedom of his actions as general director of VKontakte was greatly reduced. He lamented the fact that the principles laid down in the foundation of the social network became more difficult to defend and formal posts in the current circumstances are uninteresting to him. Experts believe that in this way Durov hinted at serious pressure from the siloviki, demanding the closure of opposition groups "VC", censorship and access to personal data of users.
Durov sold his shares to a well-known media manager and former CEO of MegaFon Ivan Tavrin, and the whole social network passed into the possession of Mail.Ru Group.
Among users, the view spread that regular disruptions in work began exactly after Pavel Durov left the company. Photo by aif.by
Not the first "closure" in 10 years of social network existence
The forthcoming "closing" of "VKontakte" will not be the first and obviously not the last in the history of the social network. In 2009, the resource was to be closed by a court decision, in March 2012 Pavel Durov himself allegedly stated that "his child will stop working because it has become too difficult to manage the site."
In the expanses of the "VC" there is even a thematic group entitled "Maybe the truth, maybe not ..." VKontakte "will be closed", in which, every six months, panic reports appear that the social network will be closed.
Fasskadnik feykov
"VKontakte" is a fairly large-scale hotbed of fake news not only about its closure. As well as through any social network, fictitious stories of varying degrees spread through the "VC", which, sometimes without preliminary verification, fall into the media and are perceived by the population as proven facts.
Such cases are also periodically encountered in the Tatarstan press: literally last year the local newspaper spread the news that during a fire on an industrial site of the RT a huge piece of concrete overlap flew from an explosion toward the correctional colony and, with the fall, demolished the watch tower with a submachine gunner, broke through the fence and the restricted area, and the prisoners allegedly fled wherever they looked.
Lina Sarimova
