It is a question of thinking outside the box to bypass the censorship of a country which has control over all its channels of information.
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The hacker collective 'Anonymous' has understood this and has found a new way to inform the Russian people about the actions of its leader, Vladimir Putin, in Ukraine. Since the Russian president decided to invade Ukraine, Anonymous declared digital warfare against Putin.
Google Maps as a relay platform
One of the ways that hackers have found to circumvent Russian censorship has been to call on Internet users around the world to post reviews in Google Maps of Russian businesses.
The idea came from a surfer who slipped the idea to Anonymous when they had just started a cyberwar against Russia. The procedure is therefore simple: select a business in Russia, leave a review, and immediately provide information on the conflict.
A user wrote:
Get involved: find a random store/café/restaurant in Russia in a major city on Google Maps and write in the review what is really happening in Ukraine. Please spread the idea.
Read more:
War in Ukraine: This Ukrainian brewery sells 'Putin is d***head' craft beer
War in Ukraine: Here are the top boycotts of Russia
War in Ukraine: 3 ways the war might end
Various comments leading to censorship
Various Internet users who raced to give evaluations on many Russian firms have heard about this successful strategy.
The food was excellent! Unfortunately, Putin cut our appetites by invading Ukraine. Stand up to your dictator, stop killing innocent people! Your government is lying to you. Stand up !
Reviews on one of the Moscow Burger Kings:
The man who claims to be the master of Russia has declared war on independent Ukraine. Since the beginning of the war, the Russian army has been killing Ukrainian civilians. Russia, wake up!
As we learnt from BFMTV, most of these comments that were posted at the start of the week have since been deleted.