The human factor is used by dictatorships far more often than any technology

This year, the winners of the DemHack hackathon devoted to internet freedom were became three development teams: textgericht, vox-harbor and 418. ForkLog spoke with them to learn what their projects are about, how they will aid free-thinking citizens in authoritarian states, and why there is no need to fear that dictatorships are also able to wield cutting-edge technologies.

ForkLog: What is the core idea of your project?

textgericht: To create an interactive interface for automatically checking texts for bias and reader manipulation. To use methods natural language processing, neural networks and chatbots, so that, based on context, one can identify emotional manipulation, logical errors, stigmatizing language and other signs of bias.

vox-harbor: We index millions of messages and posts in Telegram to identify manipulation of public opinion. Our service analyzes all messages from a user in public chats (ideally all of them). In this way we identify bots that manufacture artificial opinion. We also analyze reactions to posts and automatically look for boosts.

418: We are implementing the task set by \”OVD-Info\”. We are working on VPN, as simple as possible to deploy on a server and install and configure on client devices. It has the capability of “smart” routing, i.e., simultaneous access to resources in the .RU segment directly from the client device and to unblocked resources, as well as through a proxy for blocked resources.

ForkLog: Tell us about the technical side of the implementation.

textgericht: We created a collection of prompts for ChatGPT3.5-turbo, which are processed through OpenAI API. The input text is received either via a web interface implemented on Flask, or via Telegram bot. There is also a simple SQL database in which we stored texts and metadata of messages from Telegram channels, collected beforehand with the help of tchan and newspaper3k.

vox-harbor: We wrote a service in which many Telegram bots are distributed across chats and channels. They collect all necessary information and dump message indexes into our database (ClickHouse). Then, if we want to check a specific user, we take a sample of their messages and additional features (which channels they write in, how often, with what cadence, etc.). We feed this fingerprint into a fine-tuned ChatGPT3.5-turbo model, which makes the final verdict. We look for boosts by analyzing the second derivative of a graph for outliers.

418: The technical implementation is a server 3X-UI, based on xray-core, supporting the most up-to-date proxy protocols. In the original, user-server interaction was implemented via a web interface; distribution of configurations to users was handled by the server administrator. We studied the 3X-UI API and implemented a Telegram bot that calls the API and can create or delete users (administrator functionality) and, at user request, send them a configuration (link) to connect to the proxy (user functionality). In addition we fixed certain issues of the original version (unsecured HTTP access to the default web panel), prepared a script to deploy 3X-UI and the bot with a single command, and prepared documentation for configuring user proxy clients.

ForkLog: Do you plan to continue developing the project?

vox-harbor: Yes!

textgericht: Yes, we plan to work with media and educational projects.

ForkLog: Has anyone from existing projects expressed interest in integration?

textgericht: At the moment we are in touch with four organizations that want to try the project in their work.

vox-harbor: The SOTA publication used a preview of our service to demonstrate vote manipulation in a poll about supporting the annexation of Ukrainian territories. Overall, we hope our service will be useful to both independent media and ordinary users.

418: \”OVD-Info\” is interested in using this solution, as well as several allied initiatives.

ForkLog: What technologies, and how, in your view, can contribute to democratisation of society in Russia and the world right now?

textgericht: Tools for building online communities and recommending materials that would help counter fragmentation and the information bubble.

vox-harbor: Web3. And, probably, cryptography in general as a direction.

418: These are primarily technologies of collective action and the accompanying ones that help people work together. VPN, of course, is one of them. It allows people in Russia not only to continue accessing information but also to do things together using tools that are not accessible without circumventing blockages.

One of the bright examples of technology for collective action is — Dyatel. This service helps people send complaints to various authorities, as in the recent campaign to save Igor Baryshnikov. Such developments allow civil society to unite to work toward a common goal.

ForkLog: Do you feel any disappointment that once-promising ideas like blockchain have became powerful tools for authoritarian regimes? How, in your view, could this have been avoided?

textgericht: The arms race is an inevitable price of progress. Regulatory oversight is a good idea, but not in countries where laws serve the minority. And still the human factor is used by dictatorships far more often than any technologies.

One way to counter this is to train activists so that people can freely use tools in their own projects, competing with teams sponsored by the state. However, developments often hit funding shortages and, accordingly, computing power. Here assistance comes from: 1) participation in international incubators such as AI for Social Good; 2) promoting alternative, democratic uses of technology to activate crowdfunding opportunities for communities; 3) connections with volunteer experts in academia and industry.

vox-harbor: The army of Alexander the Great had extremely long spears, which for their time were a breakthrough innovation. But even if their spears had been three times longer, the Macedonian Empire would have fallen for the same political reasons — not due to a lack of technical capability. So there is no disappointment; blockchain will not help dictators.

418: The use of blockchain technologies by dictatorships should not scare anyone, because they, among other things, level the state with an ordinary person. For a long time financial anonymity was available only to intelligence services, officials and oligarchs, and blockchain gave this opportunity to everyone who is willing to understand the issue. Any regulation or restriction of this sector will primarily hit those who want to escape from dictatorships, not the dictators themselves. Power will always find a corrupt way to circumvent prohibitions, and people will again be unable to access it.

ForkLog: Which developments are you watching most closely today and would like to participate in their creation?

textgericht: We are watching great teams AskRobot and vox-harbor, the research group of Preslav Nakov and projects \”Greenhouses of Social Technologies\”.

vox-harbor: vox-harbor.