Why I Leaving LiveJournal for Dreamwidth
I’ve been a member of Live Journal since August 26th, 2005. Although I didn’t make my first post until October 21st (longtime lurker, first time poster….).
I’ve also had a DreamWidth account since September 2, 2010, which tells you how long there has been upheaval here in LJ-land. I created that account and migrated my posts over there, just in case, and then pretty much forgot about the account.
This is probably going to be my last post to Live Journal (well, maybe my second to last post, I think there’s going to be another one about how you can join me on DreamWidth and migrate your journal contents when you come over).
TL;DR "Livejournal no longer pretends to adhere to the concept of Freedom of Speech and/or privacy as (still) practiced in the USA." I will not pay a Russian company to store my journal if it is required by Russian law to allow the Russian government to read it.
What most people seem to forget is that while Live Journal used to be an American company, it was sold to the Russian company SUP in 2007. Most of us didn’t think anything about it, until Live Journal quietly moved their servers to Russia back in January. Suddenly people were making a fuss about it, and I didn’t quite understand why. I assumed it has something to do with the Russians hacking the American election, because LJ being owned by the Russians wasn’t anything new. What I didn’t know until I saw this comment back in January, was what exactly moving Live Journal’s servers to Russia actually meant.
*****
Putin’s government wants Russians’ data where it can easily read them…. Any online service (including social networks, email, or messaging services) that uses encrypted data is now required to permit the Federal Security Service (FSB) to access and read their services’ encrypted communications, including providing any encryption keys
Why did LiveJournal’s move its servers to Moscow? Because of a law requiring websites that do business in Russia to store data on Russians in Russia. SUP is a Russian company, so it really had no choice. The authorities may even have ordered it not to tell anyone, though it couldn’t hide the fact.
This is only a small part of what’s happened in that country. Most LiveJournal users haven’t noticed that the same law led to permanently blocking LinkedIn. Apple and Google have agreed to remove LinkedIn from the Russian edition of their app stores. Google has moved its data on Russians to Russian servers.
The LiveJournal situation looks even more alarming in this context. Putin’s government wants Russians’ data where it can easily read them. LiveJournal consists mostly of day-to-day personal stories, but LinkedIn is full of valuable business information, including messages which people think are private. It would be a huge boost to the country’s internal espionage system. Connecting the two, matching up LiveJournal messages with LinkedIn profiles, would offer the Kremlin even more.
It isn’t just that the data is physically located there. The law mandates backdoors into all encrypted storage. EFF reports:
But some of the greatest confusion has come from Internet service providers and other telecommunication companies. These organizations now face impossible demands from the Russian state. Now they can be ordered to retain every byte of data that they transmit, including video, telephone calls, text messages, web traffic, and email for six months-a daunting and expensive task that requires the kind of storage capacity that’s usually associated with NSA data centers in Utah. Government access to this data no longer requires a warrant. Carriers must keep all metadata for three years; ISPs one year. Finally, any online service (including social networks, email, or messaging services) that uses encrypted data is now required to permit the Federal Security Service (FSB) to access and read their services’ encrypted communications, including providing any encryption keys.
The pieces fit together disturbingly. If you’re in Russia, the government wants to know everything about you, and it has criminalized dissent. Westerners using LiveJournal are just experiencing the fallout of this, but Putin’s government now has backdoor access on all of them.
Just get out of LiveJournal. It’s worse than we thought.
Source
*****
I write private posts that are meant for my eyes only. I write friends only posts on LiveJournal where I talk about my work. I try to use pseudonyms, but I have always worked under the assumption that those locked posts were only being read by the audience that I expected to be reading them. Now I have to assume that the Russian government is reading anything I write. The idea that someone that I have not authorized reading my writing, especially a hostile foreign power, is NOT acceptable.
And then yesterday I was forced to agree to a new User Agreement (http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos-en.bml) that really made it clear that Live Journal no longer cares about their non-Russian customers. The ToS was written in Russian. And the English translation? Not legally binding.
"ATTENTION: this translation of the User Agreement is not a legally binding document. The original User Agreement, which is valid, is located at the following address: http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos-ru.bml.
"so, what you’re agreeing to isn’t the translation given, but the original user document. Which is in Russian. And might be exactly the same context as the translation… and might not."
Agreeing to the terms of service means I’m supposed to comply with Russian law, even though I am not a Russian citizen or resident.
9.1 By posting Content, User shall:
9.1.3 Mark Content estimated by Russian legislation as inappropriate for children (0 −18) as “adult material” by using Service functions.
I have no idea what content is considered inappropriate in Russia, and I don’t want to find out.
ETA - No actually, I do know what is considered illegal in Russia. Even mentioning that homosexuals exist is illegal. So if you are LGBT, if you have LGBT friends, if you write or read or rec slash fanfic, your journal is technically illegal in Russia. And according to the TOS can be deleted.
9.2 The User may not:
9.2.3 mislead Users as to his/her identity and relationships with other individuals;
Goodbye anonymity.
9.2.8 perform any other actions contradictory to the laws of the Russian Federation and/or any other applicable laws, including those applicable in the jurisdiction of User’s residence.
10.4 In case of request of from a competent authority, the Administration may be obliged to provide the information about User or related to User.
Presumably any Russian authority would be considered “competent.” Again, goodbye privacy.
I have deep problems with the way the Russian government operates. Their treatment of LGBTQ people is horrific. And today there was an article in the New York Times about how Russia has moved to ban Jehova’s Witnesses as ‘ Extremist’.
In Russia, as in many countries, the door-to-door proselytizing of Jehovah’s Witnesses often causes irritation, and their theological idiosyncrasies disturb many mainstream Christians. But it has never promoted violent or even peaceful political resistance.
“I cannot imagine that anyone really thinks they are a threat,” said Alexander Verkhovsky, director of the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, which monitors extremism in Russia. “But they are seen as a good target. They are pacifists, so they cannot be radicalized, no matter what you do to them. They can be used to send a message.”
That message, it would seem, is that everyone needs to get with the Putin program - or risk being branded as an extremist for displaying indifference, never mind hostility, to the Kremlin’s drive to make Russia a great power again.
“A big reason they are being targeted is simply that they are an easy target,” Ms. Fagan said. “They don’t vote, so nobody is going to lose votes by attacking them.”
I’ve had an account on Dreamwidth since 2010. I can’t remember anymore what the LJ kerfluffle was that led me to stake my claim on my name over there. But I’m glad I did, because it gives me the option of moving over there with the same user name, which will make it easy for folks to find me. I’ve been slowly preparing to flee Live Journal (backing up my Live Journal, moving my icons, moving my posts) for a couple of weeks now. And yesterday’s TOS just made me accelerate my move.
My paid Live Journal account is expiring this month. I’ll keep a free account over here, and continue to read and comment on Live Journal (at least for the time being). But I will no longer be posting or keeping my journal on this site. Once I'm sure that everything has migrated properly, I'll be deleting my posts from Live Journal.
If you want to read my journal going forward, you can now find me on DreamWidth here -> https://brickhousewench.dreamwidth.org/. If you're already over there, help me find your journal.
ETA - From a comment on a friends-locked post
As a supplemental note this isn't really LJ changing their terms of service, this is LJ informing you that the laws that they have to operate under have changed under their feet since last week. They didn't have to reveal new terms of service and could have continued operating as is - instead they are informing you that things have changed in the new Russia, just in case you didn't realize they are a Russian company.
The laws are already in place and currently active - LJ is just taking the step of informing you of them officially and making sure that you know of them. The Russian text makes this quite clear - the English translations puts the politest spin on it in the hope of stemming the exodus they know is going to occur. Technically any service that maintains systems in Russia is bound by their laws. If you are an LGBT advocate on Facebook (a quintessentially American company) you can be arrested under these laws if you go to Russia because it is likely that someone under the age of 18, somewhere in the world, has viewed your Facebook entry on the topic (and even mentioning it to a minor is a criminal offense under the new act that was passed by the Duma) .
ETA #2
Also, Live Journal no longer uses HTTPS. WTF? They mask it in the address bar so I hadn’t noticed the change. Dreamwidth uses the secure protocol (HTTPS).
From the same thread: Shorter version as I understand it: Livejournal no longer pretends to adhere to the concept of Freedom of Speech and/or privacy as (still) practiced in the USA.
ETA #3 Russian owned LiveJournal bans political talk adds risk of spying
LiveJournal, a blog community that's hosted a lot of science fiction authors and fans (including George RR Martin), has officially banned "political solicitation" - which can mean anything that criticises the Russian government, as well as pro-LGBTQ discussions. There are also concerns users can be subject to Russian spying.
I’ve also had a DreamWidth account since September 2, 2010, which tells you how long there has been upheaval here in LJ-land. I created that account and migrated my posts over there, just in case, and then pretty much forgot about the account.
This is probably going to be my last post to Live Journal (well, maybe my second to last post, I think there’s going to be another one about how you can join me on DreamWidth and migrate your journal contents when you come over).
TL;DR "Livejournal no longer pretends to adhere to the concept of Freedom of Speech and/or privacy as (still) practiced in the USA." I will not pay a Russian company to store my journal if it is required by Russian law to allow the Russian government to read it.
What most people seem to forget is that while Live Journal used to be an American company, it was sold to the Russian company SUP in 2007. Most of us didn’t think anything about it, until Live Journal quietly moved their servers to Russia back in January. Suddenly people were making a fuss about it, and I didn’t quite understand why. I assumed it has something to do with the Russians hacking the American election, because LJ being owned by the Russians wasn’t anything new. What I didn’t know until I saw this comment back in January, was what exactly moving Live Journal’s servers to Russia actually meant.
*****
Putin’s government wants Russians’ data where it can easily read them…. Any online service (including social networks, email, or messaging services) that uses encrypted data is now required to permit the Federal Security Service (FSB) to access and read their services’ encrypted communications, including providing any encryption keys
Why did LiveJournal’s move its servers to Moscow? Because of a law requiring websites that do business in Russia to store data on Russians in Russia. SUP is a Russian company, so it really had no choice. The authorities may even have ordered it not to tell anyone, though it couldn’t hide the fact.
This is only a small part of what’s happened in that country. Most LiveJournal users haven’t noticed that the same law led to permanently blocking LinkedIn. Apple and Google have agreed to remove LinkedIn from the Russian edition of their app stores. Google has moved its data on Russians to Russian servers.
The LiveJournal situation looks even more alarming in this context. Putin’s government wants Russians’ data where it can easily read them. LiveJournal consists mostly of day-to-day personal stories, but LinkedIn is full of valuable business information, including messages which people think are private. It would be a huge boost to the country’s internal espionage system. Connecting the two, matching up LiveJournal messages with LinkedIn profiles, would offer the Kremlin even more.
It isn’t just that the data is physically located there. The law mandates backdoors into all encrypted storage. EFF reports:
But some of the greatest confusion has come from Internet service providers and other telecommunication companies. These organizations now face impossible demands from the Russian state. Now they can be ordered to retain every byte of data that they transmit, including video, telephone calls, text messages, web traffic, and email for six months-a daunting and expensive task that requires the kind of storage capacity that’s usually associated with NSA data centers in Utah. Government access to this data no longer requires a warrant. Carriers must keep all metadata for three years; ISPs one year. Finally, any online service (including social networks, email, or messaging services) that uses encrypted data is now required to permit the Federal Security Service (FSB) to access and read their services’ encrypted communications, including providing any encryption keys.
The pieces fit together disturbingly. If you’re in Russia, the government wants to know everything about you, and it has criminalized dissent. Westerners using LiveJournal are just experiencing the fallout of this, but Putin’s government now has backdoor access on all of them.
Just get out of LiveJournal. It’s worse than we thought.
Source
*****
I write private posts that are meant for my eyes only. I write friends only posts on LiveJournal where I talk about my work. I try to use pseudonyms, but I have always worked under the assumption that those locked posts were only being read by the audience that I expected to be reading them. Now I have to assume that the Russian government is reading anything I write. The idea that someone that I have not authorized reading my writing, especially a hostile foreign power, is NOT acceptable.
And then yesterday I was forced to agree to a new User Agreement (http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos-en.bml) that really made it clear that Live Journal no longer cares about their non-Russian customers. The ToS was written in Russian. And the English translation? Not legally binding.
"ATTENTION: this translation of the User Agreement is not a legally binding document. The original User Agreement, which is valid, is located at the following address: http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos-ru.bml.
"so, what you’re agreeing to isn’t the translation given, but the original user document. Which is in Russian. And might be exactly the same context as the translation… and might not."
Agreeing to the terms of service means I’m supposed to comply with Russian law, even though I am not a Russian citizen or resident.
9.1 By posting Content, User shall:
9.1.3 Mark Content estimated by Russian legislation as inappropriate for children (0 −18) as “adult material” by using Service functions.
I have no idea what content is considered inappropriate in Russia, and I don’t want to find out.
ETA - No actually, I do know what is considered illegal in Russia. Even mentioning that homosexuals exist is illegal. So if you are LGBT, if you have LGBT friends, if you write or read or rec slash fanfic, your journal is technically illegal in Russia. And according to the TOS can be deleted.
9.2 The User may not:
9.2.3 mislead Users as to his/her identity and relationships with other individuals;
Goodbye anonymity.
9.2.8 perform any other actions contradictory to the laws of the Russian Federation and/or any other applicable laws, including those applicable in the jurisdiction of User’s residence.
10.4 In case of request of from a competent authority, the Administration may be obliged to provide the information about User or related to User.
Presumably any Russian authority would be considered “competent.” Again, goodbye privacy.
I have deep problems with the way the Russian government operates. Their treatment of LGBTQ people is horrific. And today there was an article in the New York Times about how Russia has moved to ban Jehova’s Witnesses as ‘ Extremist’.
In Russia, as in many countries, the door-to-door proselytizing of Jehovah’s Witnesses often causes irritation, and their theological idiosyncrasies disturb many mainstream Christians. But it has never promoted violent or even peaceful political resistance.
“I cannot imagine that anyone really thinks they are a threat,” said Alexander Verkhovsky, director of the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, which monitors extremism in Russia. “But they are seen as a good target. They are pacifists, so they cannot be radicalized, no matter what you do to them. They can be used to send a message.”
That message, it would seem, is that everyone needs to get with the Putin program - or risk being branded as an extremist for displaying indifference, never mind hostility, to the Kremlin’s drive to make Russia a great power again.
“A big reason they are being targeted is simply that they are an easy target,” Ms. Fagan said. “They don’t vote, so nobody is going to lose votes by attacking them.”
I’ve had an account on Dreamwidth since 2010. I can’t remember anymore what the LJ kerfluffle was that led me to stake my claim on my name over there. But I’m glad I did, because it gives me the option of moving over there with the same user name, which will make it easy for folks to find me. I’ve been slowly preparing to flee Live Journal (backing up my Live Journal, moving my icons, moving my posts) for a couple of weeks now. And yesterday’s TOS just made me accelerate my move.
My paid Live Journal account is expiring this month. I’ll keep a free account over here, and continue to read and comment on Live Journal (at least for the time being). But I will no longer be posting or keeping my journal on this site. Once I'm sure that everything has migrated properly, I'll be deleting my posts from Live Journal.
If you want to read my journal going forward, you can now find me on DreamWidth here -> https://brickhousewench.dreamwidth.org/. If you're already over there, help me find your journal.
ETA - From a comment on a friends-locked post
As a supplemental note this isn't really LJ changing their terms of service, this is LJ informing you that the laws that they have to operate under have changed under their feet since last week. They didn't have to reveal new terms of service and could have continued operating as is - instead they are informing you that things have changed in the new Russia, just in case you didn't realize they are a Russian company.
The laws are already in place and currently active - LJ is just taking the step of informing you of them officially and making sure that you know of them. The Russian text makes this quite clear - the English translations puts the politest spin on it in the hope of stemming the exodus they know is going to occur. Technically any service that maintains systems in Russia is bound by their laws. If you are an LGBT advocate on Facebook (a quintessentially American company) you can be arrested under these laws if you go to Russia because it is likely that someone under the age of 18, somewhere in the world, has viewed your Facebook entry on the topic (and even mentioning it to a minor is a criminal offense under the new act that was passed by the Duma) .
ETA #2
Also, Live Journal no longer uses HTTPS. WTF? They mask it in the address bar so I hadn’t noticed the change. Dreamwidth uses the secure protocol (HTTPS).
From the same thread: Shorter version as I understand it: Livejournal no longer pretends to adhere to the concept of Freedom of Speech and/or privacy as (still) practiced in the USA.
ETA #3 Russian owned LiveJournal bans political talk adds risk of spying
LiveJournal, a blog community that's hosted a lot of science fiction authors and fans (including George RR Martin), has officially banned "political solicitation" - which can mean anything that criticises the Russian government, as well as pro-LGBTQ discussions. There are also concerns users can be subject to Russian spying.