Putin’s voting booth webcam idea would slow down Russia’s Internet

There’s an interesting side effect to one of the prime minister’s electoral reform plans, the Wall Street Journal reports:  The Internet, at least the part within Russia, may slow down significantly on the day of March 4 presidential election if video cameras streaming live feeds from the field are installed at each polling station, Ilya ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.

There's an interesting side effect to one of the prime minister's electoral reform plans, the Wall Street Journal reports: 

There’s an interesting side effect to one of the prime minister’s electoral reform plans, the Wall Street Journal reports: 

The Internet, at least the part within Russia, may slow down significantly on the day of March 4 presidential election if video cameras streaming live feeds from the field are installed at each polling station, Ilya Massukh, deputy head of the communications ministry told Russian business daily Vedomosti.

The questionable idea to install cameras in polling places was first brought up by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin during the annual televised phone-in with Russians. Mr. Putin suggested that this be done in response to the allegations that the December 4 elections to the parliament were rigged.

“The main communication links on the average transmit 70 gigabits per second in Russia, and this project, if you treat it head on will clog up almost 100 gigabits per second,” Vedomosti cited Mr. Massukh as saying.

It’s been said that only amateurs steal elections on election day. And while observers have documented "serious indications of ballot box stuffing" in the recent parliamentary elections, measures like media control, parliamentary procedure, and marginalizing opposition groups months ahead of time are more crucial to guaranteeing electoral victory to United Russia. Slowing the Internet down to a crawl on a day when protests are likely could be seen as a feature rather than a flaw of Putin’s idea. 

Hat tip: Evgeny Morozov

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

Tag: Russia

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