Putin Has a New Tool to Monitor Russians

3 comments

1. Justin Sherman: “Russia has a new way to surveil its citizens: a ‘super app.’ Made by the Russian tech company VK, the app is called Max, and as of September 1, it’s required on every new phone sold in Russia. Max enables users to send messages, talk with one another, share files, and transfer money to and from Russian banks. The Kremlin’s ultimate vision for the app is expansive: Citizens will use it to send texts and make calls; parents will communicate with their child’s school; residents will be able to prove their identity to government agencies and businesses. Max’s wide range of uses has prompted analogies to China’s WeChat.

   “The Kremlin’s goals with the app appear to be twofold: By restricting the use of alternative platforms such as WhatsApp, President Vladimir Putin can continue his effort to construct an independent (in his view, ‘sovereign’) Russian digital sphere. And though Russia and China have many differences when it comes to technology, the Kremlin still clearly wants for the kind of device-level surveillance that China has achieved; Max represents a step in that direction, offering Putin a new tool to monitor Russians—and even Ukrainians in Russian-occupied territories—in deeper ways.

   “… In recent years, the Kremlin has escalated its efforts to swap Western technology for Russian-made replacements, but the results have been mixed. The operating system Astra Linux, built to replace Microsoft Windows, is now widely deployed in Russia. But Russia’s hardware-manufacturing capacity is dismal.

   “… The Max app has at least a slightly higher chance of success. As in the past, the technology isn’t perfect. Some Russians already have complained about Max’s functionality (and mocked VK’s semi-cheesy, semi-effective enlistment of rappers, comedians, and influencers to promote it). One streamer joked that the app’s top selling point is that it … works. But VK is a well-known Russian tech company that successfully built and scaled a platform—also called VK, previously VKontakte—that is often dubbed ‘Russia’s Facebook.’ (In addition to having similar functions as Facebook, VK has a nearly identical interface.) Today, VK is one of the most popular social-media platforms in Russia, used by upwards of 90 million people. Max has just 18 million registrants as of mid-August but is less than a year old.

   “Perhaps more important to Max’s success is the fact that Russia seems committed to enforcing its use. The state can fairly easily police the requirement that Max be installed on new phones by threatening phone companies that don’t comply or even jailing their executives. And the state is trying to push Russians who bought their phone before September 1 to adopt Max by limiting access to other messenger apps. In August, the Kremlin heavily restricted voice calls on WhatsApp and Telegram for anyone in Russia, citing the platforms’ alleged failure to hand over data to the Russian security services. (Putin hates WhatsApp, as it is owned by Meta, which Russia sees as a tool of American subversion and has formally designated an extremist organization; both Facebook and Instagram are banned in Russia.) The hope seems to be that Russians will eventually give up on these alternatives.”

   Read more: [https://theatln.tc/cGkk0fJd](https://theatln.tc/cGkk0fJd) 

2. Amazing!

3. VKontakte (Russian Facebook) , used to be popular, but now I have no idea who still uses it. The latest updates from my friends are from about five years ago. I quit VKontakte and other Russian social platforms and switched to Reddit exactly because *Comrade Major* was reading my comments.

   MAX is being heavily promoted, but for now, people refuse to install it unless absolutely necessary. For example, parental and student groups at schools are being forced to move to MAX. If life becomes impossible without MAX, those who refuse to install it now might end up having two phones—one for MAX and another for regular communication.

Comments are closed.