As a resident of Belarus I would like to cover a topic connected with usage of modern technologies on protests against illegitimate president. Nothing new people are adapting due to new technologies easily, but for a tall governance structure it is much harder, consequently there is a large gap between technologies. These technologies are:

The pivotal tool is telegram channels on telegram. To fully understand the scale of its usage, I have to mention that at one moment the main channel NEXTA was the biggest channel in the world among news channels having more than 2 million subscribers. This channels help people to coordinate in the city. Since telegram isn’t under restriction and can’t be blocked in Belarus governance is in a losing situation. The only thing they can do is blocking the internet, what causes enormous loses for them and businesses.

Cyber attacks on governance. Belarusian situation has created a lot of talented programmers and IT specialists because of lack of jobs there. Thus, hackers organize attacks on governance webpages and banking systems. Also they are working on uncovering of names of military structures participating in killing and torturing of people.

Governance webpage

Recognition of faces. “You have no face”  is facial recognition algorithm for doxing riot police which was developed by Belarusian specialists. Developer Andrey Maximov uploaded a video illustrating the work of a computer program that “unmasks” Belarusian law enforcement officers. The algorithm is capable of recognizing the face of a person involved in suppressing protests, even if it’s hidden by a mask, cap, or balaclava.The algorithm’s interface: it highlights the riot police officer’s face and runs it through a database of photographs of law enforcement officers. However, it doest work as good as possible making a lot of mistakes, but also it is useful technology.

illustration*

To sum up, I would like to say, that all this technologies help people to pressure on the governance without losses of people lives. Moreover, protests in Belarus are estimated as peaceful, therefore this technologies are necessary to help them remain the same.