How is Russian propaganda reinforced by Internet censorship and what are the technologies and movements battling this behemoth? Learn what local and international developers, journalists, researchers and civil activists are doing to restore internet freedoms during wartime.
Internet without borders is a bi-lingual (ru<->en) conference and hackathon for everyone interested in challenging Kremlin’s false naratives and agression in the digital domain. Register if you want to join the battle against online propaganda in Russia and the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
To participate in the event, you must register.
Friday, March 24th 2023
9:30 – 10:00 – Welcome coffee;
10:00 – Conference Opening – Anton Litvin, artist, director of the Kulturus festival, Yanina Zielinska, event coordinator of Teplitsa. Technologies for Social Good;
Part 1. How do we weaken Kremlin’s propaganda by fighting against censorship?
10:00 – 10:25 – Keynote: Ambitions of the “Internet Without Borders” conference series and how decentralization can define the future of digital resistance to Russian censorship – Dmitri Vitaliev, co-founder and director of eQualitie;
10:25 – 10:40 – “RuNet Self-Isolation: why it’s happening and what can be done?” – Alexey Sidorenko, co-founder of Teplitsa. Technologies for Social Good;
10:40 – 10:55 – “Breaking the digital blockade: how Internet Protection Society is going to bring the Internet and security to the Russians” – Mikhail Klimarev, executive director of Internet Protection Society;
10:55 – 11:00 – “The black box game: hiding data as a form of military censorship” – Arnold Khachaturov, head of data team at Novaya Gazeta Europe and founder of To be precise platform;
11:10 – 11:25 – “Internet blackouts and other tools of digital dictators in Eastern Europe and Central Asia” – Natalia Krapiva, Tech-Legal Counsil at Access Now;
11:25 – 11:40 – “Current Time TV Channel. Year of War: audience, blocking, new features” – Kirill Mikhaylov, Current Time TV Channel, Executive Producer;
11:40 – 12:00 – Coffee break
Part 2. War and censorship through the eyes of activists and journalists
12:00 – 12:15 – “The Russian Way to Freedom of Information” – lawyer Ivan Pavlov, specialist in state security and freedom of information, founder of the human rights projects Team29 and the First Department;
12:15 – 13:15 – Discussion panel: “War, censorship, journalism” – Moderator: Denis Bilunov (Faculty of Sociology, Charles University), co-founder of the Prague Russian Anti-War Committee. Confirmed Members:
- Timur Olevsky, journalist, chief editor of The Insider;
- Grigory Pasko, journalist, co-founder and director of the 19/29 Foundation;
- Ivan Preobrazhensky, an expert on Central and Eastern Europe, columnist for a number of media.
- (participant to be confirmed).
13:15 – 14:00 – Lunch. Light snack would be offered.
Part 3. Fighting Internet censorship in practice: network research and VPN Solutions
14:00 – 14:15 – “Digital Annexation: How Russia Seizes and Controls the Internet in the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine” – Ksenia Ermoshina, Senior Fellow at Citizen Lab and CIS CNRS, UX Researcher at eQualit.ie;
14:15 – 14:25 – “NewNode: An SDK for mobile offerings from the creators of BitTorrent” – Mikhail Klimarev, executive director of Internet Protection Society;
14:25 – 14:40 – “Share the Web: Ceno Browser as a new paradigm for mutually beneficial censorship resistance” – Dmitri Vitaliev, co-founder and director of eQualitie;
14:40 – 14:55 – “High-availability Proxies and Uncensored File Sharing” – Alec, Tina, Lantern project;
14:55 – 15:10 – “VPN in a mask: how to make a block-resistant VPN using the example of AmneziaVPN” Mazay Banzaev, – founder of AmneziaVPN;
15:10 – 15:25 – “VPN inside Russia: fast and cheap” – Max Rodkin, Cloud Engineer, DevOps;
15:25 – 15:40 – Q&A with speakers of the Conference;
15:40 – 16:00 – Coffee break
Part 4. War and censorship through the eyes of activists and journalists, part 2
16:00 – 16:15 – “Preparation and conduct of international anti-war and protest actions: the Prague experience” – Alla Ebel – Member of the Council of the Prague Anti-War Committee;
16:15 – 16:30 – “Tools for overcoming the barriers of the anti-war movement” – Max Kosenko – founder of the Reshim.org movement;
16:30 – 16:45 – “Decentralized resistance. How it works by way of example of the F.A.R. division in the Czech Republic” – Vera Legkikh, member of the F.A.R. (CZ), founder of the Biblio.tečka book rental, Vera Koss, member of the F.A.R. (CZ), illustrator and art director at DOXA;
16:45 – 17:00 – «How to work with the status of “undesirable” and “foreign agent”: experience of Important Stories media» – Irina Dolinina, journalist of the Important Stories, Alesya Marokhovskaya, editor of the data department of the Important Stories;
17:00 – 17:15 – “From “troll factory” to “combat PR”. How to deal with paramilitary lies”– Alexandra Garmazahapova, president of Free Buryatia Foundation;
17:15 – 17:30 – “Choices That a Civic Resistance Movement Can Make” – Igor Blazevic, human rights campaigner of Bosnia origin living in Prague;
17:30 – 17:45 – Questions to speakers and discussion. Conference Closing Ceremony (we recommend staying at the event until the start of the buffet at 19:00)
17:45 – 18:00 – Break.
Part 5. “Hackathon without borders”
18:00 – 19:00 – Opening of the hackathon, mini-presentations of tasks and projects – Ksenia Yermoshina, Alexey Sidorenko;
19:00 – 21:00 – Buffet for guests of the event. End of the first day of the event
March 25th, Saturday
Come to the hackaton if you want to improve anti-censorship and digital resistance tools. Developers, designers and documentarians – all welcome! Participants who solve the hackathon problem receive cash prizes.
10:00 – Hackathon start. During the hackathon, participants will be offered light snacks.
18:00 – Hackathon defense. Participants’ presentations.
Join us! Admission is free, but registration is required.
