Firefox Browser Blocks Anti-Censorship Add-Ons at Russia’s Request
theintercept.com
At Russia’s request, Firefox web browser maker Mozilla blocked add-ons that are designed to circumvent internet censorship.
  • SavvyWolfEnglish
    46•5 months ago

    It’s either get the addons removed, or get the whole addon store itself blocked. You can just install the extension from an xpi file.

    Mozilla really isn’t in a position to fight the Russian government over this and win.

    • Possibly linuxOPEnglish
      -25•5 months ago

      Yes they kind of are. I’m not sure how many Firefox users there are in Russia but some how I think there enough that it would be yet another bad look for the authoritarian government.

      • SavvyWolfEnglish
        23•5 months ago

        I checked, and according to Statcounter it’s at 3.3%. So if Mozilla did go hardball, it’d affect an insignificant amount of people.

        Realistically though, I don’t follow world politics much but I assume that “blocking firefox” probably wouldn’t be the worst optics they’ve had in the past few years.

      • @khorovodoved@lemm.ee
        8•5 months ago

        If Mozilla gets blocked, people would just install some other browser (probably, something from Russia). I do not see how this helps anyone but the government itself. And departure of hundreds (if not thousands) of western companies did nothing to the Russian government, some problems with a browser with almost non-existent userbase would have the same effect. It should be quite clear by now that such tactic simply does not work.

  • @Telorand@reddthat.com
    33•5 months ago

    “Following recent regulatory changes in Russia, we received persistent requests from Roskomnadzor demanding that five add-ons be removed from the Mozilla add-on store,” a Mozilla spokesperson told The Intercept in response to a request for comment. “After careful consideration, we’ve temporarily restricted their availability within Russia."

    It sucks, but it’s a battle they weren’t ever going to win. The dictator gets to have final say in how things go in their country.

    • holgersson
      13•5 months ago

      I mean, FF is the default browser and this also might rub some people the wrong way - having the developer of the only relevant free and open, non-google browser bow to a dictatorship

    • Possibly linuxOPEnglish
      -8•5 months ago

      Firefox is a Linux browser in the since that pretty much all of Linux comes with it of you have a desktop.

    • @Telorand@reddthat.com
      20•5 months ago

      Read the article. They didn’t “get into” anything. They got told to take five add-ons down or face the wrath of a regime with a close relationship with defenestration, which they did only for Russians.

    • @ProgrammingSocks@pawb.social
      10•5 months ago

      Every major company does this, it just doesn’t make headlines. Plus I’m sure they know you can still install it outside of the store.

    • Possibly linuxOPEnglish
      6•5 months ago

      It is a hard issue to solve. However, I think Mozilla should ignore Russia.

  • @kenkenken@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    -8•5 months ago

    It’s not the first time. Mozilla was helping to fascism in Russia for years by using Yandex as a default search engine in Russia. Because Yandex was paying them. It’s all for money, obviously. And now they don’t want to lose the market. But the fans of FF will explain how this is “ethical” and helps to save the web.

    • JackGreenEarthEnglish
      15•5 months ago

      It’s not ethical.

      Chrome, and Google, however, are worse. Firefox derived browsers are the lesser of two evils, at least they prevent Google having a total monopoly.

      • @kenkenken@sh.itjust.works
        1•5 months ago

        Chrome is a commercial product and don’t pretend to be something more, while Firefox gets free marketing from the whole GNU/Linux community, exploiting people’s sense of morals.