Week 11 Work

In my research essay, I would like to argue that internet service providers should not deny

service to Russian citizens in response to the invasion of Ukraine. I have found that there has

been a big push by the Russian government before the invasion of Ukraine to censor and control

what its citizens see. Before the invasion, the Russian government sought to put tighter

restrictions on the things citizens can view while banning ways to get around their restrictions,

such as the usage of secure browsers like Tor Browser or VPNs. The war in Ukraine exacerbated

this issue because worldwide internet providers have ceased to provide internet to Russia in

response to the war. This further isolates the Russian internet from the rest of the world, allowing

the government to have complete control over the things that its citizens see.

A counter-position to this argument is that service should be denied to Russian citizens

because it restricts the ability of Russian hackers to execute cyberattacks on Ukraine or another

country. This counter-position would reduce the number of cyberattacks that would happen to

other countries, but it allows Russia to become further isolated from the rest of the world’s

internet, leading to potential misinformation from the government. This also would limit Russian

citizens’ access to information that is from other countries.

My argument is not part of the status quo. Many ISPs are still denying service to Russian

citizens without realizing the repercussions that it has for them. After ISPs started pulling service

from Russia, many people were concerned about how the sanctions would affect Russian

citizens’ ability to get information that is based outside of Russia. This concern led to the

development of my particular stance in my essay.

 I can use this information to bring awareness to the drawbacks of ISPs denying service to

Russian citizens. I can establish a connection with the reader by analyzing these effects and

convincing the reader that they should care about my stance.

Works Cited

Cristiano Lima. "Groups Warn of Harm to Internet Access in Russia." Newspaper Source,

EBSCOhost, 14 July 03,

login.cscc.ohionet.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&A
 uthType=cookie,ip,uid&db=nfh&AN=wapo.f8030fce-a24f-11ec-aeb0-3cf77f9cee6d&site

=ehost-live.

Givens, Alexandra. "Russians Need the Internet Now More Than Ever." Barron's, 17 Mar. 2022,

www.barrons.com/articles/russians-need-the-internet-now-more-than-ever-51647459311.

Accessed 10 Apr. 2022.

Grieg, Jonathan. "Internet service provider Cogent cutting off access to Russian customers."

ZDNet, 4 Mar. 2022,

www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/networking/internet-service-provider-cogent-cutting-of

f-access-to-russian-customers/. Accessed 10 Apr. 2022.

"Russia: With Tech Firms Pulling Out, Internet Spiraling into Isolation." Human Rights Watch,

14 Mar. 2022,

www.hrw.org/news/2022/03/14/russia-tech-firms-pulling-out-internet-spiraling-isolation#

. Accessed 10 Apr. 2022.

Timberg, Craig. "Internet experts suggest ways to selectively block Russian military and

propaganda sites." Washington Post, 10 Mar. 2022,

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/10/internet-russia-sanctions-proposal/.

Accessed 10 Apr. 2022.