It’s either get the addons removed, or get the whole addon store itself blocked. You can just install the extension from an xpi file.
Mozilla really isn’t in a position to fight the Russian government over this and win.
Yes they kind of are. I’m not sure how many Firefox users there are in Russia but some how I think there enough that it would be yet another bad look for the authoritarian government.
I checked, and according to Statcounter it’s at 3.3%. So if Mozilla did go hardball, it’d affect an insignificant amount of people.
Realistically though, I don’t follow world politics much but I assume that “blocking firefox” probably wouldn’t be the worst optics they’ve had in the past few years.
If Mozilla gets blocked, people would just install some other browser (probably, something from Russia). I do not see how this helps anyone but the government itself. And departure of hundreds (if not thousands) of western companies did nothing to the Russian government, some problems with a browser with almost non-existent userbase would have the same effect. It should be quite clear by now that such tactic simply does not work.
“Following recent regulatory changes in Russia, we received persistent requests from Roskomnadzor demanding that five add-ons be removed from the Mozilla add-on store,” a Mozilla spokesperson told The Intercept in response to a request for comment. “After careful consideration, we’ve temporarily restricted their availability within Russia."
It sucks, but it’s a battle they weren’t ever going to win. The dictator gets to have final say in how things go in their country.
Yep. Also, don’t let Congress off the hook, because they were a big part of that decision.
Here’s a list if you want to find your rep https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/13/politics/20240313-congress-tiktok-ban-bill-vote-dg/index.html
Not that this isn’t interesting, but how is it linux related?
LibreWolf <3
Ok it’s getting properly sus now. Mozilla goes into politics way too much
Read the article. They didn’t “get into” anything. They got told to take five add-ons down or face the wrath of a regime with a close relationship with defenestration, which they did only for Russians.
Every major company does this, it just doesn’t make headlines. Plus I’m sure they know you can still install it outside of the store.
So you’re defending major companies? Ok. May as well do what Jia Tan did…
You know as well as I do that Mozilla isn’t exactly a small community project. This isn’t a surprise to me.
