Is it true that the VKontakte network will be closed? Fines for Vkontakte: is it true that using a VPN is an administrative violation (Video)

VKontakte is the most popular Internet resource in the Russian Federation (at the time of writing). This means that it is visited daily by millions of users who generate billions of requests. This is a huge load that requires appropriate equipment and specialists. VK has both. However, users periodically complain that the social networking site is inaccessible to them or does not load. Looking ahead a little, let's say that the problem most often lies on the user's side. However, first things first.

VKontakte really doesn't work

When loading VK you may receive an error like this:

Or something like this:

This does not mean that VK is inaccessible, but there is no need to discount this possibility.

To check whether VK is really not working, first, try accessing the site from your smartphone or tablet. You need to visit the site with mobile device, since in case of problems it will show the availability or unavailability of a resource, unlike a computer (below you will understand why).

Secondly, you can go to the news section and look for information about the unavailability of VK. If the site is truly unavailable, information about this immediately appears on online news resources.

In addition, there may be problems with a particular server, so try reloading the page several times.

In general, VKontakte crashes very rarely.

Problems with the provider

This option is unlikely, but still possible. Thus, there are several known cases when the VKontakte website was unavailable due to problems with the provider, and some other resources were also unavailable.

You can find out this only by calling your provider's technical support.

VK is blocked

IN in this case it is assumed that VK is blocked by the network you use in this moment. For example, schools have Wi-Fi networks with limited access, that is, you won’t be able to access some resources using them. It is possible that VKontakte was included in the blocking list from a smartphone using this network, you won’t be able to access it.

If you are using a computer, the resource may also be blocked. We've already talked about this.

Viruses and malware

Alternatively, access to VK is blocked by a virus or malware. For example, if you installed some software recently, it is quite possible that it is the source of the problem. What can be done?

First of all, use the antivirus installed on your computer, remembering to update the database. After this we strongly recommend downloading Cureit utility! from Dr. Web. It is distributed free of charge. Just download it and run it, it will automatically check the files and possibly find the malicious one among them. By the way, such a program that blocks the site social network, there may be a program created to work with VK. Be careful when downloading unfamiliar applications and installing them on your computer.

You can also try adding VKontakte to the firewall exception list, if one is installed.

If this does not help, you can try to roll back the system to an earlier point when logging into VK was available. However, all files that you have downloaded up to this time will not be deleted. The main thing is that you create a restore point at an earlier point in time.

Check out the hosts file

Hosts - text file, containing a database of domain names and used when translating them into network addresses nodes, and a request to this file has priority over access to DNS servers.

Speaking in simple language, using this file the user can block access to the site. In addition, when accessing certain web resources, the user can be redirected to completely different sites. The latter is often used by attackers.

What's the point? You surf the Internet calmly, and after some time you cannot get into VK. Perhaps the problem is a Trojan that changes data in the hosts file without the owner’s knowledge. When opening VKontakte, the user is redirected to another site, which completely copies VK. This was done either in order to gain access to the user’s page, since he enters his data on the scammers’ website, or in order to receive funds from him - after entering his login and password, the user receives a message that he supposedly must confirm his profile by sending an SMS to short number. Only SMS messages are paid. Like this tricky way used by scammers.

After a scam site is removed from hosting, for example due to a complaint, it stops loading. The user is trying to open this site, which no longer exists. Accordingly, the site does not open. Only the user does not know that he is trying to open not VKontakte, but a scam site.

In general, be that as it may, the user needs to open hosts file and see what is written in it. It is located at C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\, where C is the drive letter where Windows is installed.

If under the word localhost you see entries like ip - VK address, you need to delete them and save the file:

If the file is not saved, open Notepad as an administrator, as shown in the screenshot:

Delete the specified entries and save the file.

Ask your questions using comments.

German Klimenko laughed at the ridiculous spam attack on users of a popular Russian social network

March 6, 2017 could have become a day of sorrow for users of the popular Russian social network VKontakte (since the end of February, a message about its imminent blocking has been spreading on the resource), however, another closure of the site was not destined to happen. " Real time“decided to understand the situation and collected five facts about the problems of the popular social network.

Why won't March 6 become a “day of mourning”?

Since the end of February, a message has been circulating on the social network VKontakte about the imminent closure of the resource, and on the eve of publications with the same content, spammers posted at a rate of once a minute. The test post names a specific closing date - March 6, 2017 - and the person in charge who made the official statement is German Klimenko, who, according to the authors of the message, is the press secretary of VK (in fact, Klimenko holds the position of Advisor to the President of the Russian Federation on Internet issues).

German Klimenko has already commented on the situation to the press, saying that everyone is openly laughing at this message, and he is not the press secretary of the social network, which, by the way, will not be closed.

Note that even such a clumsy presentation of the message could cause a small surge of panic and increased attention to the news about the closure of the resource. At the same time, users of the social network were frightened by the fact that after blocking VK, their personal information would be in public access, and to avoid this, they need to copy this message to their wall.

Accidents in VK data centers and regular failures

Rumors about the impending closure of VK were significantly fueled by a large-scale failure on the social network that occurred at the beginning of this week and lasted for several hours. But it is worth noting that VKontakte, like any other resource, is at risk of becoming unavailable for a number of technical reasons.

In general, in the history of VK there are several major operational failures. One of the most notable occurred on July 25, 2010: the site remained inaccessible for more than four hours due to a power outage in the data center. Another failure occurred on July 27, 2014: then, as a result of an accident in one of the data centers, the site was also unavailable to users.

On August 4, 2015, the VKontakte website remained inaccessible for more than two hours. According to the company's press service, the cause of the problem was a physical break in the cable connecting the data centers. It was later reported that the cause of the failure was “a fatal combination of circumstances.” Increasing cases of VKontakte inaccessibility led to the popularization of the hashtag #vkzhivi on Twitter.

Is it all Pavel Durov's fault?

In addition to the hashtag, the opinion spread among users that regular disruptions began exactly after Pavel Durov left the company. On April 1, 2014, on his VKontakte page, Durov announced that he was leaving the post of general director of the company.

In his appeal, the creator of the social network argued that in 2013, his freedom of action as CEO of VKontakte was greatly reduced. He complained that the principles underlying the social network had become increasingly difficult to defend and that formal positions in the current conditions were of no interest to him. Experts are sure that in this way Durov hinted at serious pressure from the security forces demanding the closure of opposition groups “VK”, censorship and access to personal data of users.

Durov sold his shares to a famous media manager and former to CEO MegaFon to Ivan Tavrin, and the entire social network became the property of Mail.Ru Group.

The opinion spread among users that regular disruptions began exactly after Pavel Durov left the company. Photo aif.by

Not the first “closure” in the 10 years of the social network’s existence

The upcoming “closure” of VKontakte will not be the first and certainly not the last in the history of the social network. In 2009, the resource was supposed to be closed by a court decision; in March 2012, Pavel Durov himself allegedly stated that “his brainchild will stop working because managing the site has become too difficult.”

In the vastness of VK there even exists thematic group entitled “Maybe it’s true, maybe not... “VKontakte” will be closed”, in which, once a year or six months, panic messages appear that the social network will be closed.

A breeding ground for fakes

VKontakte is a fairly large-scale hotbed of fake news, not only about its closure. As with any social network, fictitious stories of varying degrees are spread through VK, which, sometimes without pre-check, end up in the media and are perceived by the population as verified facts.

Similar cases are periodically encountered in the Tatarstan press: just last year, a local publication disseminated the news that during a fire at one of the industrial facilities of the Republic of Tatarstan, a huge piece of concrete ceiling flew from an explosion towards a correctional colony and, when falling, demolished a clock tower with a machine gunner, broke through the fence and the restricted area, and the prisoners allegedly ran away in all directions.

Lina Sarimova

And you use this social network. Believe it or not, over the past week two people asked me the same strange question, in my opinion.
We were talking about an entry that had been circulating on VKontakte for a long time, beginning with the words: “Starting Monday, the VK program will be deleted, I will leave this entry so that my photos, correspondence, etc. do not spread across the Internet...”, etc.
The question was: does it work? Is it necessary to make such public statements?

To make it clear to everyone what I’m talking about, I’m posting the text of this entry in its entirety, and below I’ll tell you what it really is.

« Because from Monday old program VK is being deleted, I will leave this entry so that my photos, correspondence, etc. do not spread across the Internet.
In response to the new VKontakte policy, I hereby declare that all my personal data, photographs, drawings, correspondence, etc. are subject to my copyright (according to the Berne Convention). For commercial use All of the above-mentioned copyrighted items require my written permission in each specific case.
VKontakte is now a public company. That is why all users of this social network are recommended to place such a “privacy notice” on their pages, otherwise (if the notice is not published on the page at least once), you automatically authorize any use of data from your page, your photos and information published on messages on the wall of your page.
Anyone who reads this text can copy it to their wall on VKontakte. You will then be protected by copyright laws. This communiqué notifies VKontakte that the disclosure, copying, distribution of my personal information or any other illegal actions in relation to my social network profile are strictly prohibited.»

This post has been circulating on the social network VKontakte for more than a year. I’ll say right away that this is all complete nonsense.
No legal force(as well as common sense) such publications do not have. By the way, the origin of this “duck” has already been investigated and on some forum it is indicated that this was done at one time to promote the profile of one of the unscrupulous users.
As for the legal part, it is immediately clear that the information was compiled with the expectation that the population is illiterate in matters of copyright. I'll explain why:

Berne Convention (the full name of the document is “Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and works of art") is indeed still in force and is the fundamental international legal act in the field of copyright protection, but it was signed in 1886 (19th century). The truth was later revised in 1979. As you already understand, no relations related to personal data and especially with email correspondence VKontakte does not regulate it. This is the first mistake made by the compilers of our strange entry.

The second mistake is the statement that “ If a notice is not posted on a page at least once, you automatically authorize any use of data from your page».

Any objects of copyright (photos, copyright notes, music, poetry, literary works) receive legal protection due to their creation in good faith by the author. According to clause 4. Art. 1259 According to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, for the emergence, implementation and protection of copyright (including literary works), registration of the work or compliance with any other formalities is not required.

The absence of a prohibition from the copyright holder on the use of objects is not considered consent (permission) - this is regulated by Article 1229 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

What you post on your page, for example, photographs of which you are the author, or your stories, is nothing more than bringing to public attention - one of the ways to use a work for which you, as the copyright holder, have every right in accordance with Art. 1270 Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
And finally, let me remind you that, just like copyright objects, your personal data is also already protected without your participation. The procedure for using personal data is regulated Federal law dated July 27, 2006 No. 152-FZ “On Personal Data”.

The same applies to correspondence, which is guaranteed confidential by Article 23 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, without any additional statements on your part.

So, friends, don’t be fooled by stupid tricks and don’t fill your timeline and your friends’ heads with all sorts of nonsense. Better subscribe to useful news. I hope that each of you who have read this material, in order to avoid getting into such stupid situations, will go

We answer the question that worries millions, whether they will be fined for logging into VKontakte via a VPN:

Fine for VK

On May 17, the Decree of the President of Ukraine banning Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki, Yandex and Mail.ru came into force. Providers and mobile operators have already begun to massively block prohibited sites, and residents of Ukraine are gradually switching to a VPN connection. Information has appeared online that users face punishment for bypassing the block.

Is it true that Ukrainians will be fined for using a VPN?

A screenshot allegedly from the Ukrainian Pravda website began to spread online, in which we're talking about that there will now be fines for using VPN in Ukraine. The Russian media picked up the news especially actively.

The “article” reports that amendments have been made to the Presidential Decree, which allegedly prohibits all methods of bypassing the blocking of prohibited sites. For this, the authors of the “article” threaten violators with a fine of 1,500 to 4,000 hryvnia.

We decided to check the information and started with the Ukrainian Pravda website. The screenshot shows the time of publication - 11.45, however, at this time a completely different material was published on the site:

The search engine does not find any material for this title. In addition, no official source contains information about any amendments to the Presidential Decree.

It is worth noting that the head of the service information security NSDC apparatus Valentin Petrov personally stated that no responsibility for bypassing blocking prohibited in Ukraine Russian Internet resources users will not bear.

“Even if you are a user, and now many recipes have appeared - VPN, Tor - please use it. Users will not be penalized in any way.", he said on air on the 1+1 TV channel.

He also emphasized that ban decision Russian services will significantly reduce their audience in Ukraine.

The Cyber Police Department of Ukraine also confirmed that they had not received any instructions in this regard.

2. There is a way to get to Opinions

Many people remember the “Opinions” tab on the left side of the page. VKontakte announced the removal of this feature in 2012, but resourceful people used the direct link to view their Opinions. Unfortunately, this feature is not currently supported.

3. Access to VKontakte is closed on the territory of Ukraine

On May 16, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko issued a decree on new sanctions against Russia, including limiting access of Ukrainian users to the VKontakte social network. Internet providers blocked clients' access to the site, but the inability to access the social network on the territory of Ukraine - another myth, which was easily debunked by the most diligent users.

The blocking of VKontakte did not affect advanced users, but became the topic of hundreds of funny ones, ironically created and distributed by Ukrainian users.

4. “Documents” is a useless function

Many correspond with the exchange of attachments in instant messengers, using the VKontakte storage only for storing funny GIFs. Not everyone knows that Documents is a real cloud service with unlimited memory. Just mark the downloaded files as private and private access they will be opened on any computer on which you are logged in. The section is convenient for storing copies of documents that are best to always have on hand, for example, a scan of an insurance policy or the first page of a passport.

If you remove the “personal document” mark, the file will appear in search results. Give your document a unique tag so you or your friends can easily find it. The only significant drawback compared to third-party cloud services- inability to download a file whose size exceeds 200 MB.

5. Deleted messages can be recovered

Unfortunately, VKontakte does not have a shopping cart for deleted messages. If you have erased correspondence, you will not be able to restore the data. The only way to get lost messages back is to ask your interlocutor to forward them to you; he might still have them.

6. You can’t download music from VKontakte

Contrary to popular belief, you can still cache songs for offline listening on iOS devices. For music lovers who store their precious music database in audio recordings, VKontakte offers a streaming service.

The company's policy regarding illegal downloading of music is unshakable: the content in the databases is periodically cleared at the request of copyright holders, and it is impossible to download songs to a computer without resorting to.

7. You can see page guests

“How to see who visited my page” is a query that users enter into search engines, it seems, from the very opening of VKontakte. The administration of the social network is adamant in this regard: there is no function to view page guests and never has been.

Numerous VKontakte applications designed for viewing guests do not know how to truly track page visitors. Trap programs will only be able to identify the user's presence if he likes, leaves a comment, or clicks on a masked link.

8. The site administration will return the old design

Shouts of “Durov, return the wall!” are unlikely to lead to any action on the part of the site administration. And the reason lies not only in the fact that Pavel Durov no longer works on VKontakte, but also in the company’s fundamental refusal to switch to the old design elements.

After the wall was replaced by more convenient system comments on the posts, the design of VKontakte has gone through dozens of changes - minor and not so much. The administration of the social network is unlikely to abandon new solutions in favor of old ones, but certain improvements to the site occur constantly.

9. You must pay for VKontakte votes

The vast majority of social network users refuse VKontakte services that require payment with votes. The reason is simple: people are not ready to spend money on virtual currency, suitable for paying for the same virtual goods. Not all VKontakte users know that votes can be obtained for free by completing advertiser tasks.