The problem is that Gmail will bounce any emails from DigitalOcean IP, even if you sit on this IP for years (so no recent spam), even if replying to someone, even if you registered as 'Postmaster' on Google.
So if you want to selfhost, you'll first need to find an IP that's not blocked to begin with.
There's not much incentive to subsidize prices for OpenRouter providers for example, and the prices are much lower than the $6.37/M estimate from the article.
With all the criticism of Mozilla here, it wouldn't be any help to keep these few extensions available, and get the whole website blocked. It's possible to get addons signed and distribute it on other websites. On the other hand, when Apple complies with demands, there's no way to install apps anymore.
> It is noteworthy that the article of the Administrative Offenses Code (KoAP) on discrediting [army] was most actively applied in 2022: that year, courts reviewed 5,662 protocols and fined 4,440 people a total of 151.3 million rubles. [1.7 mil USD]
> Last year, the number of protocols almost halved to 3,053, as did the number of those punished — only 2,361 people were held accountable, and the total amount of fines imposed was 76.6 million rubles. [858,721 USD]
> The number of people convicted for spreading knowingly false information about the activities of the armed forces (Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code) increased from 14 to 65 (almost fivefold) last year. Of these, 30 people were sentenced to imprisonment: most often, sentences under this article ranged from five to eight years, but two sentences fell into the category of eight to ten years. For comparison: in 2022, only two of the 14 people convicted for fakes received actual imprisonment, with the harshest sentence falling into the "5 to 8 years" category.
> The number of people convicted for justifying terrorism continues to grow: from 318 in 2022 to 345 in 2023. However, the number of sentences for public calls for violent change of the constitutional order in the media or on the internet has decreased from 334 to 281. [...]
I'm not sure why you assume malice intentions by default.
Using a legal entity in a more convenient country for a startup seems like a common practice, including listing the address of such entity on the website. You'd be surprised how many companies are incorporated in America, pay taxes there, but have founders/employees/contractors elsewhere around the world.
So, I personally wouldn't count it as active effort of "trying to hide" or "trying to mislead".
> The report mentioned that their LinkedIn profiles changed from showing Moscow to Tbilisi. I'm sure I could also change my location to Tbilisi on my LinkedIn profile. How is that a meaningful argument?
Again, not sure why assume malice intentions. I also updated my Linkedin location when I left Russia, is that surprising?
> Why do you care to defend them so much?
Pavel pays me 15 rubles per comment of course! (tbh not sure why I waste time on this :D)
Even the report mentions the team members moving to Tbilisi, Georgia. Afaik Pavel moved to Dubai and still has Ukrainian citizenship. So I doubt a significant portion of company's money ending up in Russia, maybe except salaries of a few engineers. But it's pennies compared to how much the regime is paid for the resources, if that's what you worry about.
So, they found nothing suspicious with devices or apps.
Also made some far fetched connections of Flipper Devices to companies owning the hackspace Pavel Zhovner worked in, and attributed his trolling and making anti-censorship tools "as actively supporting the authorities in Russia". lol.
> The math questions were of the form “Is 17077 prime”? They picked 500 numbers, but all of them were prime!
> The June version of GPT-3.5 and the March version of GPT-4 almost always conclude that the number is prime regardless of whether it is prime or composite. The other two models do the opposite. But the paper only tested prime numbers, and hence concluded that GPT-3.5’s performance improved while GPT-4’s degraded.
The problem is that Gmail will bounce any emails from DigitalOcean IP, even if you sit on this IP for years (so no recent spam), even if replying to someone, even if you registered as 'Postmaster' on Google.
So if you want to selfhost, you'll first need to find an IP that's not blocked to begin with.