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Generally speaking, the type of person who uses ProtonMail is also the type of person who will trivially bypass this block.

StrLght 7y ago
Pretty much, but that isn’t the idea behind this block. Someone used ProtonMail to send a lot of different bomb threats to the police. Because of this block police now have some legal ground to ignore those threats.
- dmos62 7y ago
  Knowing how often Kremlin retreats to shaping public perception through theatrics, it's easy to think of the bomb threats as an inside job.
  - mapcars 7y ago
    There is some information that the threats were sent by a guy who lost ton of money on recently crashed biggest Russian bitcoin exchange.
    - Kinrany 7y ago
      Do you have a source?
      - mapcars 7y ago
        yep, it's in Russian though: https://news.mail.ru/society/40378912/ https://news.mail.ru/society/40378912/
        Kinrany 7y ago
        Primary source: https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-50956160 https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-50956160 (also in Russian) It seems all evidence is based on the emails sent by the author of the bomb threats. I don't think it works as evidence against this being an inside job.
  - StrLght 7y ago
    Agreed that it’s not possible to know for sure what’s going on. But it’s not the first time this kind of stuff happens however it’s the first time action was taken.
techntoke 7y ago
Not really, most people that use ProtonMail "heard" it was safe but aren't using VPNs daily and would probably struggle to find out how to incorporate it into their daily routine correctly with split tunneling. The smart people host their own email, not rely on someone else.
- vcavallo 7y ago
  the smart people live in a plastic oil tank buried under four feet of peat
  - logfromblammo 7y ago
    Hang on, I need to call my peat guy, who assured me that one meter was sufficient. Also, you have to line that tank with shotcrete. Hosting locations matter when you are buying network-delivered services. Even if it is trivial to bypass for the user, this one time, jurisdictional risk to the provider is something that you have to consider as a factor when comparing competitors and self-host options.
    - vcavallo 7y ago
      indeed! and when a lot of people are talking about 'self-hosting' they're mostly talking about a VPS they rent from some provider who could vanish just as easily as Proton can. I'd like to see the numbers on how many self-hosting evangelists (I don't mean that term pejoratively. I think self-hosting is great) are actually talking about metal they physically control.
      - _jal 7y ago
        I can't tell where you want to draw the line. I personally have a couple physical servers in a cage. I do not own the data center in which they reside. Does that count? If I don't "self-host", then neither does the corp I work for, with hundreds of machines in other people's DCs...
        7y ago
hysan 7y ago
When I heard news of bans like this, my thought is that their goal is two-fold: 1. Inconvenience current users 2. Prevent new users so the service doesn’t gain traction With the second reason being their true motive.

StrLght 7y ago

Pretty much, but that isn’t the idea behind this block. Someone used ProtonMail to send a lot of different bomb threats to the police. Because of this block police now have some legal ground to ignore those threats.

dmos62 7y ago
Knowing how often Kremlin retreats to shaping public perception through theatrics, it's easy to think of the bomb threats as an inside job.
- mapcars 7y ago
  There is some information that the threats were sent by a guy who lost ton of money on recently crashed biggest Russian bitcoin exchange.
  - Kinrany 7y ago
    Do you have a source?
    - mapcars 7y ago
      yep, it's in Russian though: https://news.mail.ru/society/40378912/ https://news.mail.ru/society/40378912/
      - Kinrany 7y ago
        Primary source: https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-50956160 https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-50956160 (also in Russian) It seems all evidence is based on the emails sent by the author of the bomb threats. I don't think it works as evidence against this being an inside job.
- StrLght 7y ago
  Agreed that it’s not possible to know for sure what’s going on. But it’s not the first time this kind of stuff happens however it’s the first time action was taken.

techntoke 7y ago

Not really, most people that use ProtonMail "heard" it was safe but aren't using VPNs daily and would probably struggle to find out how to incorporate it into their daily routine correctly with split tunneling. The smart people host their own email, not rely on someone else.

vcavallo 7y ago
the smart people live in a plastic oil tank buried under four feet of peat
- logfromblammo 7y ago
  Hang on, I need to call my peat guy, who assured me that one meter was sufficient. Also, you have to line that tank with shotcrete. Hosting locations matter when you are buying network-delivered services. Even if it is trivial to bypass for the user, this one time, jurisdictional risk to the provider is something that you have to consider as a factor when comparing competitors and self-host options.
  - vcavallo 7y ago
    indeed! and when a lot of people are talking about 'self-hosting' they're mostly talking about a VPS they rent from some provider who could vanish just as easily as Proton can. I'd like to see the numbers on how many self-hosting evangelists (I don't mean that term pejoratively. I think self-hosting is great) are actually talking about metal they physically control.
    - _jal 7y ago
      I can't tell where you want to draw the line. I personally have a couple physical servers in a cage. I do not own the data center in which they reside. Does that count? If I don't "self-host", then neither does the corp I work for, with hundreds of machines in other people's DCs...
      - 7y ago

hysan 7y ago

When I heard news of bans like this, my thought is that their goal is two-fold: 1. Inconvenience current users 2. Prevent new users so the service doesn’t gain traction With the second reason being their true motive.