Russia Launches New System to Scan the Internet for Banned Content

Russia has launched a new system to scan the Internet for banned content.

The system, named Oculus, will be looking through posts to find dissent and “LGBT propaganda”, officials said.

It is able to read text as well as examine images to look for illegal scenes, the Interfax news agency reported. It is able to look through more than 200,000 images each day, taking about three seconds to scan each picture, it reported.

Oculus “automatically detects offences such as extremist content, calls for illegal mass gatherings or suicide, pro-drug content, LGBT propaganda and so on,” Interfax quoted the Main Radio Frequency Centre (MRFC), part of the communications supervisor Roskomnadzor, as saying.

“The creation of this system is our response to provocations and anti-Russian actions on the part of foreign resources.”

VIA the Independent, UK