While Russians were trying to relax (and work a little during the break between the May holidays), famous memes were dying online, messengers were massively blocked, and people were accused of spying on clients. tells what happened online when the whole country flocked to nature.

Roskomnadzor blocked five messengers at once

In early May, Roskomnadzor unexpectedly gained access to the websites of the Imo, BlackBerry Messenger, Vchat and Line services, citing the fact that they refused to cooperate with the Russian authorities.

The agency, according to its official representative Vadim Ampelonsky, has begun filling out the register of information dissemination organizers, which should include, among other things, messengers available in Russia. Of the four blocked services, the Japanese Line was popular among Russians: the application team tried to attract an audience from Russia with the help of popular YouTube bloggers and fashionable stickers associated with Russian Internet stars.

A few days later, Roskomnadzor listed prohibited resources on the Chinese website WeChat messenger along with technical domains and IP addresses. In all cases, the reason for the blocking was the reluctance of the services to contact the Russian agency: its representatives did not receive answers to their requests.

At the same time, Line still works without any problems, unlike WeChat, the inaccessibility of which users complained about already on the day of blocking.

Line, apparently, abandoned attempts to promote in Russia several years ago, but WeChat for Russians is one of the most popular means of communication with users from China. More than 800 million people use the service worldwide.

Memes were carved on a slab and buried

The popular American service 9GAG, which publishes popular memes, viral photos and life stories, has solved modern Internet culture on a stone slab.

More than half a million users actively chose memes that have become Internet classics. As a result, Philosoraptor, the self-confident guy Fuck Yeah, the Japanese comedian Pico-Taro, who became famous for the video Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen, and dozens of other pictures known to everyone who has even a little knowledge of memes, were carved on the slab.

The slab was solemnly buried in the Spanish desert, so that descendants several thousand years later could discover it and puzzle over what modern people had in mind when they carved the popular Dickbutt meme in stone.

The creators of the monument explained that memes are short-lived and quickly forgotten. Therefore, it was decided to preserve the most legendary ones forever, so that in the future people would know what the Internet laughed at in the 21st century.

Durov turned out to be a resident of Finland

Pavel Durov, founder social network"VKontakte" and Telegram messenger, moved to Finland for permanent residence. By at least, this is evidenced by documents from the financial statements of Telegram Messenger LLP, which were at the disposal of Izvestia.

There Durov appears as the person controlling the company. It is also noted that he is a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis, a country in the eastern Caribbean.

After Durov sold his stake in VKontakte and left his native St. Petersburg, he allegedly donated $250,000 to one of the island’s enterprises and automatically received citizenship. Citizens of the state can enter 131 countries without a visa, including almost all states.

True, then Durov actively discussed his next place of residence on Facebook and noted that he had never been to the Caribbean Islands. Judging by his Instagram, even today he does not stay in one place for long.

Everyone believed in Merkel's “blurred” hair

The visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Saudi Arabia caused a furor on the Internet: a fake photo with the king, in which the German politician’s hair, which was not covered with a headscarf, was allegedly blurred out, was spread all over the Internet.

Everyone was actively discussing how Arab television does not spare women and tries to censor even the chancellor’s head. Although the author of the photo that spread on Facebook immediately warned that this was just a joke.

The photo was published by Sarah Abdalla, a Lebanese political scientist, in her quite popular Twitter-account. The girl loves to comment on political events and could not resist posting a fake, complaining about the infringement of women's rights.

The tweet was shared by more than 30 thousand people, and no one even noticed that the picture was the work of a photographer and had nothing to do with television. Under the publication, a whole discussion began about how people who should understand the topic and monitor the reliability of publications leak jokes online and use them to manipulate public opinion.

Sarah herself later admitted that the photo was fake, but still expressed her outrage that a representative of Saudi Arabia joined the Women's Rights Commission. Many asked her to delete the tweet, but judging by further comments, the girl simply blocked all those who disagreed and continues to collect likes and retweets.

McDonald's monitors you using ultrasound

Internet security specialists from Braunschweig technical university Germany discovered that everything more apps on Android uses a tracking system using ultrasonic beacons. Such services in Google store more than 200, and among them - official application restaurant chains fast food McDonald's.

The technology works as follows. The human ear cannot detect ultrasonic signals, unlike laptops, smartphones and other gadgets. Establishments, most of which have native applications, can install those same beacons at offline points. As soon as a customer registered in the application enters a store or restaurant, his device recognizes the signals and transmits the information to the service developer.

In this way, companies can collect great amount data: what time of day the person made the order, what gadget he uses, how often he visits the establishment, and the like.

In reality, the devices do not constantly read these signals: in order to transmit the information, users must open the application within the premises of the establishment. Experts suggest that some stores and restaurants specifically conduct promotions, providing discounts to those who open the program while shopping.

In theory, ultrasound could also be integrated into television or radio advertising. True, ultrasonic inserts have not yet been found in any TV commercials.

The creator of Pepe the Frog gave the meme a funeral

The creator of Pepe the Frog, the internet meme that went from being a quirky comic strip to a symbol of hate and anti-Semitism, has officially laid him to rest. Artist Matt Fourier posted a page on his Tumblr blog where he depicted a frog in a coffin surrounded by his friends Landwolf, Brett and Andy.

The main characters of the Boy’s Club comic book universe mourned the frog in their own way: one of them unceremoniously poured a drink in his face, and then took a couple of sips himself. The publication was timed to coincide with the annual Free Comic Book Day and was widely discussed not only among fans of graphic novels, but also Twitter users, Reddit and other Internet platforms, Pepe was used for any reason.

Despite the lack of comment from the character's creator himself, it is clear that he can no longer accept the fact that Pepe became a symbol of intolerance during the US presidential election and then migrated to the French. The hero had to be killed after he became associated not only with politics, but also with the French presidential candidate from the National Front.

For ten years, the frog was a fairly harmless meme - a guy who constantly says, “This is cool, man.” His innocent nature remained until 4chan decided in 2015 that Pepe should henceforth be associated with nationalism and represent the far-right Americans. The omnipresent Pepe, surrounded by symbols of fascism and peppered with racist comments, was officially recognized as a symbol of anti-Semitism by the Jewish rights organization Anti-Defamation League.

In October 2016, Fourier wrote a column in Time, recalling the Pepe who knows no hate. But this did not help, and the artist eventually renounced his brainchild.

Hello IdeaFox friends!

Today I have great news for you:
I found a wonderful program with which you can communicate with friends on the phone for free.

You will say that there are tons of such messengers, and I agree with you. For example, only on this blog I did detailed reviews these programs, used by hundreds of millions of people around the world:

1. viber
2. Talked about WhatsApp
3. About KakaoTalk

And we will continue to study and save money :)

There really are a lot of analogues of Viber and Watsapp, but they are all somehow crooked or something. Yes, and against the backdrop of Viber glitches Lately, any stable communication app always piques my keen interest.

But Line: free calls & messages, which I used for 2 weeks, made a very favorable impression on me with its stability and speed. And, importantly, the program is completely Russified, and there should be no problems with its development.

The fact that the program comes from Japan, which is famous for the quality of its products, is encouraging.

What features does this program have?

Line: free calls & messages allows you to:

1. Send text messages with emoticons (SMS). You will laugh, but many people refuse the messenger if it doesn’t have emoticons.
2. Call as on regular phone and communicate by voice.
3. Send photos to friends
4. Create communication groups. This is something like a chat in which like-minded people communicate freely.
5. And many other useful features

But you understand, everyone is primarily interested in the opportunity to save on calls and text messages when communicating with family and friends.

How much does Line cost?

The program itself is free. The only thing you will pay for is Internet access from your phone. But there are also paid functions, for example, “stickers”. Be careful. Although, many people buy them because they are quite funny.

Therefore, I immediately recommend enabling the option unlimited access in Internet. Thankfully, now unlimited options inexpensive, and cost about 3-10 rubles per day, depending on the region of Russia and the greed of the operator cellular communications:-) For example, I pay 4 rubles per day for full unlimited from MegaFon in Nizhny Novgorod.

Where to download Line: free calls & messages?

The developer of the program is the Japanese company Line Corporation:

Unfortunately, the site does not have a Russian version yet, but I think it’s a matter of time. The Japanese are hardworking people and work very quickly.

Click on the “Download” button and you will see the following window:

As you can see, there are now versions for phones running the following operating systems:

Or just look for Line in the application store for your smartphone (Google Play Market, Apple Store, etc.)

And what's most interesting is that there is a version for desktop computers

That is, you can call from regular computer on phones! Here are the versions for:

1. Windows 7 (16 megabytes)

This is a huge advantage over other applications. Yes I know there is mobile version for Skype, but it’s still not very convenient, in my opinion.

Since I own an Android phone, I will show you how to install the application and how to use it in this video:

Yes, yes, now I will write it down own videos, subscribe to my video channel and you will always be aware of the coolest services :-)

This is my first time recording a video, so don't swear too much. I wrote a video from the first run, I apologize for some hiccups. I had to re-upload the video to another account because I didn’t immediately think through the channel settings scheme... The first version turned out to be a mess. Experience does not come immediately :-)

How to install Line: Free Calls & Messages on your computer?

Below is a video on how to install the application on Windows7

This video has already turned out better :-)

I will share my impressions of use:

1. The program is stable and consumes little energy.
2. The interface is clear and in Russian. There shouldn't be any difficulties in mastering it.
3. You can invite all your friends en masse by e-mail.
4. I repeat that lately there have been a lot of glitches with Viber, which I talked about earlier. Many people complain about the unavailability of the service, glitches with uploading photos and much more.
5. There is beauty here :-) So far everything is working AS IT SHOULD

What I think:

It looks like cellular operators will soon ( popularly they are aptly called OPSOS:-), will suffer huge losses due to the massive migration of users to such messengers.
And very soon some tricky law will appear that will allow cutting off traffic for such applications. I think that during the autumn session the State Duma will take up this issue.

We promised to come up with something! Don't worry, all your contacts will remain with you and you can continue to use your database even after LinkedIn is mercilessly blocked. We have collected 7 tools that will help you always stay in touch with your circle of acquaintances.

UPD:Method 1
Extension that unblocks LinkedIn for Russian users

We found another extension that will allow you to continue working with Linkedin. It was created immediately after the decision was made to block the social network in Russia. That is, you can safely use it. It needs to be installed and turned on once. And that’s it, you don’t have to install or configure anything else.

HIs it better to eat? We noticed the following benefits:
— free (and there are no paid functions at all),
— security (some extensions can leak data),
— other sites will open the same way - the speed will not change

Method 2
Browser installation

Some browsers in the settings already have the ability to change the VPN, that is, the “virtual private network" It is not at all necessary to know in detail what it is and how it works. Just know that this kind of connection allows you to bypass resource blocking. Seriously, no need to rack your brains. We tried to collect the most safe ways so that your data is not used against you.

Opera

If you already use Opera, just update it. Everything else is simple. Open your browser settings, turn on " Opera turbo", check the box next to "Enable VPN":

We took the screenshots from the Opera blog. Ibid. you can read more about how to work with VPN switching.

Tor Browser

Another free browser, which provides “absolute anonymity on the Internet through the use of distributed network servers, which is organized by volunteers from all over the world."

After installation, you can immediately start using the browser. We do not recommend changing the settings.

Method 3
Installing the browser extension

Hola

You can install the plugin in just two steps:

1/ Find the version for your browser.
Versions: for Google Chrome,for Firefox,for Safari, for Internet Explorer(yes, even that).

2/ Download / go to the online store, install the extension.

The icon appears on the right top corner. Click, select the country through which you would like to view LinkedIn. For example, through the USA or Great Britain, or simply through Belarus.

Zenmate

Everything is completely identical, but this extension does not have a version for Internet Explorer. Find the required version you can directly on the Zendesk website.

TunnelBear

Another extension, which, however, at some point will require you to pay for further use - the amount of traffic passed through is limited. But it is definitely 100% safe. (there are rumors that Hola is guilty of leaking data)

Method 4
The simplest ways to bypass blocking

Hidemyass/ Hideme

Go to one of the above-mentioned resources, enter the address of the page you want to visit (linkedin.com) and view everything that interests you. You can also configure the country through which the page will be displayed.

Method 5
View from a mobile device

And again they come to help you Hola And Zendesk. You can install it on both iOS and Android. For free. And through them you can easily browse LinkedIn at any time convenient for you.

Line messenger website and more three services for messaging - BlackBerry Messenger, Imo.im and Vchat - were included in the register of prohibited sites of Roskomnadzor, Roskomsvoboda. The department explained to TJ that they are conducting “systematic work” with the FSB to register messengers as organizers of the dissemination of information.

To bookmarks

Roskomsvoboda saw that at the end of April four popular instant messengers appeared in the register of prohibited sites - Imo.im was added on April 19, and the rest on April 28-29. In addition to the addresses of official websites (for example, line.me), a number of IP addresses were also included in the register.

In a conversation with TJ, the head of Roskomsvoboda, Artyom Kozlyuk, suggested that Roskomnadzor is in this way trying to reach an agreement with the services, “preventively” adding them to the register in order to attract attention. TJ's check showed that Line app still works correctly - that is, apparently, the IP addresses entered in the registry really do not affect the ability to download and use instant messengers. Many more IP addresses were added to the registry, and this really complicated the operation of the application in Russia, Kozlyuk emphasized.

Roskomnadzor press secretary Vadim Ampelonsky explained to TJ that he had indeed begun to actively contribute resources popular messengers to the register, but “for now” this does not affect their work in Russia. From his words it follows that the listed services did not respond to requests from the department, which Roskomnadzor regarded as a refusal to register as organizers of information dissemination.

Ampelonsky did not answer whether similar requests were sent to WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Telegram, which are popular in Russia: “You will find out everything as decisions are made on specific services.”

We, together with the authorities carrying out operational investigative activities, are systematically filling the register of organizers of information dissemination. Those who do not respond are blocked - in full accordance with the law. If they provide the data, they will be excluded from the register.

The law clearly defines the procedure. The primary requirement is five days to respond. No response - notice of failure to fulfill the duties of the organizer of information dissemination, 15 days to correct. Next is blocking.

Vadim Ampelonsky, press secretary of Roskomnadzor

Of all four services included in the Roskmnadzor register, the Line messenger is the most popular. Created in Japan, Line is popular throughout almost all of Southeast Asia: if in China WeChat is considered the mass standard among messengers, then, for example, in Thailand, an account in Line is equivalent to a phone number and is displayed on store windows and business cards.

In 2014-2015, Line actively increased its marketing activities in Russia, but later curtailed them: last message V official group“VKontakte” is dated January 1, 2016. In the last financial quarter of 2016, Line’s statistics began to decline: the messenger’s monthly audience dropped from 220 to 217 million people compared to the previous quarter.