Mozilla Foundation, the organization behind the popular web browser Firefox, has blocked several censorship circumvention add-ons for its browser, including those specifically designed to help users in Russia bypass state censorship. This decision came after requests from Russia’s federal censorship agency, Roskomnadzor. According to a statement by Mozilla, they have temporarily restricted the availability of these add-ons within Russia, but they are carefully evaluating their next steps while considering their local community.
The move by Mozilla has surprised many, as the organization has always been seen as a supporter of open access to information. Stanislav Shakirov, the chief technical officer of Roskomsvoboda, a Russian open internet group, expressed his disappointment and hoped that Mozilla would reconsider its decision. He stated that he believed the values of the corporation were clear in terms of access to information and that complying with state censors went against these values.
Developers of digital tools designed to bypass censorship noticed that their Firefox add-ons were no longer available in Russia. The developer of Censor Tracker, an add-on for bypassing internet censorship in Russia and other former Soviet countries, posted on Mozilla’s discussion forums about the unavailability of their extension to Russian users. Another developer of an add-on called Runet Censorship Bypass, specifically designed to bypass Roskomnadzor censorship, also reported that their extension was blocked without any notification from Mozilla.
In addition to these two add-ons, two VPN add-ons called Planet VPN and FastProxy were also blocked. VPNs are virtual private networks that allow users to hide their location by routing their traffic through servers in other countries. The Intercept confirmed that all four add-ons were indeed blocked in Russia. When accessed from a Russian IP address, the Mozilla add-on page displayed a message stating that the page was not available in the region. However, if accessed with an IP address outside of Russia, the add-on page loaded successfully.
Roskomnadzor is responsible for the control and supervision of telecommunications, information technology, and mass communications in Russia. In recent years, they have been increasing their efforts to restrict access to censorship circumvention technologies, including VPNs. In 2018, there were reports of Roskomnadzor blocking access to the entire Firefox Add-on Store.
Mozilla’s decision to block these add-ons goes against their own principles as stated in their manifesto. They are committed to an internet that includes all people, regardless of their demographic characteristics, and believe that the internet should remain open and accessible as a global public resource.
Interestingly, Mozilla also operates its own VPN service called Mozilla VPN. However, it is only available in 33 countries and does not include Russia. It is worth noting that the same four censorship circumvention add-ons are still available for other web browsers such as Google Chrome without being blocked by the browsers’ web stores.
Overall, this move by Mozilla has raised concerns about their commitment to open access to information and their willingness to comply with state censorship requests. It remains to be seen how Mozilla will address this issue and whether they will reconsider their decision in the future.
