Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, has been the center of many large protests, starting long before Christmas. First, there was the decision of the Ukrainian government to stop talks on signing a trade agreement with the European Union. Then, a law prohibiting the use of hoods or anything that distorts facial features at demonstrations. More than 100,000 Ukrainians have taken to the city's central squares and are demonstrating, with clashes with the police being widespread.
It seems that the Ukrainian government, in addition to tear gas, batons and rubber bullets, also used technology last night to suppress Ukrainian protests. Around midnight, protesters who were at a point where clashes were taking place received the following SMS on their mobile phones en masse :
Dear subscriber, you have been recorded as participating in a mass disturbance of social peace
None of the three mobile phone companies seem to have given the Ukrainian government access to do this. At least that's what they say . Which means the government has a way to bypass their systems using the famous location metadata that app and operating system companies, as well as the NSA, are trying so hard to downplay. And the Ukrainian government's goal is obviously to scare protesters by showing them that it is monitoring them.
The incident is unprecedented, however. We may have heard in several countries that the ability to use mobile phones is being “cut off” in the hope that the lack of communication will discourage protesters, but such intimidation? Of course, the Ukrainians are terribly determined, as they have proven for several days now and continued their protests unabated…
Source: digitallife.gr
