Russian Libertarians take to the streets to protest Telegram block
Rights aren't given, they're taken.
That is the slogan on the large yellow banner.
Yesterday, April 30th 2018, thousands of people took to the streets to protest the Russian government blocking the messaging app Telegram. The Russian government blocked Telegram after they refused to give access to its users' conversations. It is claimed that access is needed to fight terrorism. Telegram protects its users' conversations through end-to-end encryption. Not even Telegram itself can read the conversations, only the users, who have the private key to decrypt the messages.
Libertarian rally in St. Petersburg
Something really remarkable happened during the protests as well. A large group of Russian libertarians held a rally too. In my opinion, this is very nice to see, since the Russian LP is relatively small and you never see them in the (Western) media. At least this gives us some evidence that not all Russians are Putin worshippers, right? Below is a picture of the Libertarian rally, with a banner that says: "Minimal state, maximal freedom".
Minimal state, maximal freedom
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--> Images in this post were provided to me via a contact on Discord.
If Libertarian Party in Russia demands "minimal State", they are minarchists. Not good.
It's logical since they're a political party. The same applies to all other libertarian parties in all countries.
Whether that's a bad thing is up for debate. This post gives a good overview of both sides: https://steemit.com/anarchy/@rvanstel/david-friedman-has-something-to-say-about-libertarian-strategy
The audacity of blocking a internet communication tool, just because they can't snoop! In the US, they don't need to do that, i'm pretty sure the NSA snoops into everything. @ironshield
I don't think the NSA shares a lot of information with the Russian authorities ;-)
No, probably not. @ironshield
Such a hopeful sight to see Russian citizens standing up and speaking out over the ever expanding surveilance state of their government. Thanks for sharing this piece about the Russian Libertarians. The biggest threat to our security isnt terrorism but the wars that create it.