[ad_1]
In the wake Following the Capitol riots two weeks ago, a number of big tech companies drew support from Speak, a Twitter-like social network that supporters of Donald Trump have increasingly favored since its launch in 2018. Apple and Google has removed the Talk app from their digital stores, and Amazon Web Services has removed hosting services from the platform. After more than a week offline, the site is now partially backed up, in the form of a landing page that promises a full return. To take it this far, Parler hired DDoS-Guard, a Russian digital infrastructure company, to defend it against the endless barrage of attacks that virtually every site faces online, especially those as controversial as Parler.
DDoS-Guard told WIRED that it only provides defense against denial of service attacks, and does not host the Parler site. But even this level of support requires access to all traffic passing through Parler, so that it can “clean up” malicious traffic aimed at overwhelming the site. Given the Russian government’s active efforts to isolate the country’s internet and gain access to all data, Parler could expose its users to Russian surveillance if the site ever reboots fully with DDoS-Guard.
“It seems like the time has come to remind all of you – lovers and haters – why we launched this platform,” the Speaking homepage currently proclaims. “We believe that the protection of privacy is paramount and that freedom of expression is essential … We will solve any challenges that come before us and plan to welcome you again soon.”
Parler COO Jeffrey Wernick said The New York Times Tuesday that the social network would prefer US-based providers and is working to find them. The platform registered its domain through Seattle-based Epik. But while Parler has been shunned by the biggest names in the US tech industry, it claims to have over 12 million users, making the platform too big for most small hosts. Its national options are therefore rare.
By embracing DDoS-Guard, even as a stopgap, Parler joins a growing list of far-right sites like 8kun (formerly 8chan) and the Daily Stormer that US infrastructure companies have taken offline, only to see companies. located in countries with limited internet freedom. like DDoS-Guard – activate their re-emergence.
“At this time, Parler.com does not violate our Acceptable Use Policy or applicable US law to our knowledge,” DDoS-Guard said in a statement to WIRED. “DDoS-Guard responsibly maintains customer data without disclosing it to third parties. In addition, the provider only stores the information required for the service and explicitly provided by customers. “
But Russia has passed laws that force tech companies to comply with government requests, and has deployed a physical network infrastructure to monitor everything from web user IP addresses and communications to location data. Using Russian infrastructure services could expose users of a site to the country’s surveillance programs, says Alp Toker, director of the non-partisan connectivity monitoring group NetBlocks. Most of the posts on Speak are intended to be public, but the platform also offered direct messaging and many types of “verified” accounts, including red badges for anyone who uploads an image of their business card. government identity. All of this information, along with granular data on user activity and user IP addresses, would potentially be exposed to the Kremlin if Parler returned with those same features while routing its data through Russian servers.
No matter where Parler eventually lands, he seems likely to find a home somewhere. The decentralized design of the Internet helps ensure connectivity, but it is also difficult to prevent people or platforms from being silenced. Even the repressive governments of countries like Iran and China have struggled with the logistics of fully controlling a regional Internet.
[ad_2]
Source link