Internet censorship in Russia

Last updated

In Russia, internet censorship is enforced on the basis of several laws and through several mechanisms. Since 2012, Russia maintains a centralized internet blacklist (known as the "single register") maintained by the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor).

Contents

The list is used for the censorship of individual URLs, domain names, and IP addresses. It was originally introduced to block sites that contain materials advocating drug abuse and drug production, descriptions of suicide methods, and containing child pornography. It was subsequently amended to allow the blocking of materials that are classified as extremist by including them to the Federal List of Extremist Materials. [1] According to Freedom House, these regulations have been frequently abused to block criticism of the federal government or local administrations. [2] [3]

A law prohibiting "abuse of mass media freedom" implements a process for the shutting down of online media outlets. [2] In March 2019 the bill which introduced fines for those who are deemed (by the government) to be spreading "fake news" and show "blatant disrespect" toward the state authorities was signed into law. [note 1]

In June 2020, the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Russia in a case involving the blocking of websites critical of the government (including that of Garry Kasparov), as the plaintiffs' freedom of speech had been violated. [8]

Status

Russia was rated "partly free" in Freedom on the Net by Freedom House in 2009 (score 49), 2011 (score 52), 2012 (score 52), 2013 (score 54), and 2014 (score 60) and as "not free" in 2015 (score 62), 2016 (score 65), 2017 (score 66), and 2018 (score 67) where scores range from 0 (most free) to 100 (least free). [note 2]

Russia was on Reporters Without Borders list of countries under surveillance from 2010 to 2013 [18] and was moved to the Internet Enemies list in 2014. [19]

Russia was found to engage in selective Internet filtering in the political and social areas and evidence of filtering was found in the conflict/security and Internet tools areas by the OpenNet Initiative in December 2010. [20]

Since at least 2015, Russia has been collaborating with Chinese Great Firewall security officials in implementing its data retention and filtering infrastructure. [21] [22] [23]

In September 2019, Roskomnadzor began installing equipment to isolate Russia, including mobile phones, from the rest of the Internet in the event the government directs such action, as required by a law taking effect in November 2019. The government's justification was to counteract potential cyber attacks from the United States, but some worried it might create an online "Iron Curtain". [24]

As of late February 2022, two of the world's leading social media platforms Facebook and Twitter have been restricted in Russia by Roskomnadzor as a wartime measure amid the invasion of Ukraine. [25] [26] [27] [28] Internet rights monitor NetBlocks reported that Twitter and Facebook platforms were restricted, or throttled, across multiple providers on 26 February and 27 February respectively, with the bans becoming near-total by 4 March. [25] [26] [29]

Agencies

Emblem of Roskomnadzor Emblem of Roskomnadzor.svg
Emblem of Roskomnadzor

Media in the Russian Federation, including the internet, is regulated by Roskomnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications), a branch of the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications.

Roskomnadzor, along with several other agencies such as the Federal Drug Control Service, the Federal Consumer Protection Service, and the office of the Prosecutor General, can block certain classes of content without a court order: Calls for unsanctioned public actions, content deemed extremist, materials that violate copyright, information about juvenile victims of crime, child abuse imagery, information encouraging the use of drugs, and descriptions of suicide. [30] Other content can be blocked with a court order. [30]

Internet service providers (ISPs) are held legally responsible for any illegal content that is accessible to their users (intermediary liability). [30]

History

Internet in 2004–2012

In 2004 only a minority of Russians (8% of the population) had Internet access. [31] In May 2008, some 32.7 million users in Russia had access to the Internet (almost 30% of the population). [32] In 2012, 75.9 million Russians (53% of the population) had access. [33] In December 2015, most of the country, 92.8 million Russians (70% of the population) had Internet access. [34]

Following his visit to Russia in 2004, Álvaro Gil-Robles, then Commissioner for Human Rights of Council of Europe, noted the high quality of news and reaction speed of Russia's Internet media. Virtually all the main newspapers were available online, some even opting for Web as a sole information outlet. Russia's press agencies (including the most important Ria-Novosti and Itar-Tass) were also well represented in the Web. [31]

In April 2008 Agence France-Presse noted that, "The Internet is the freest area of the media in Russia, where almost all television and many newspapers are under formal or unofficial government control". [35]

As reported by Kirill Pankratov in April 2009 in The Moscow Times :

Even discounting the chaotic nature of the web, there is plenty of Russian-language material on political and social issues that is well-written and represents a wide range of views. This does not mean, though, that most Russians are well-informed of the important political and social issues of today. But this is largely a matter of personal choice, not government restrictions. If somebody is too lazy to make just a few clicks to read and become aware of various issues and points of view, maybe he deserves to be fed bland, one-sided government propaganda. [36]

In a November 2009 address to the Federal Assembly, then President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev acknowledged that Russia was ranked only as the world's 63rd country based on estimates of the level of communications infrastructure development. He stressed the necessity to provide broadband Internet access to the whole Russian territory in five years, and to manage the transition to digital TV, as well as the 4G of cellular wireless standards. [37]

In 2010 OpenNet Initiative noted, that while "the absence of overt state-mandated Internet filtering in Russia has led some observers to conclude that the Russian Internet represents an open and uncontested space", the government had a consistent, strategic approach to taking control over the information in electronic media. 2007 cyberattacks on Estonia and cyberattacks during the Russo-Georgian War (2008) may have been "an indication of the government’s active interest in mobilizing and shaping activities in Russian cyberspace".

Developments since 2012

Establishment and expansion of the blacklist

First countrywide judicial censorship measures were taken by the government in the wake of the 2011–13 Russian protests. This included the Internet blacklist law, implemented in November 2012. The criteria for inclusion in the blacklist initially included child pornography, advocating suicide and illegal drugs. In 2013, the blacklist law was amended with content "suspected in extremism", "calling for illegal meetings", "inciting hatred" and "violating the established order". [38]

The law allowed for flexible interpretation and inclusion of a wide array of content which was frequently abused by the law enforcement and administration for blanket blocking of publications criticizing state policy or describing daily problems of life in Russia.

Popular opposition websites encouraging protests against the court rulings in Bolotnaya Square case were for example blocked for "calling for illegal action"; Dumb Ways to Die , a public transport safety video, was blocked as "suicide propaganda"; websites discussing federalization of Siberia—as "attack on the foundations of the constitution"; an article on a gay activist being fired from job as well as LGBT support communities—as "propaganda of non-traditional sex relations"; publishing Pussy Riot logo—as "insult of the feelings of believers"; criticism of overspending of local governor—"insult of the authorities"; publishing a poem in support of Ukraine—"inciting hatred" etc. [3] [2] A separate class of materials blocked due to "extremism" are several religious publications, mostly Muslim and Jehovah's Witnesses. Bans can be challenged in courts, and in some cases these appeals are successful. [39] [40]

Proposals for further controls

In 2015, Russia's Security Council proposed a number of further Internet controls to prevent hostile "influence on the population of the country, especially young people, intended to weaken cultural and spiritual values". Prevention of this "influence" also includes active countermeasures such as actions targeted at the population and young people of the states attempting to weaken Russia's cultural values. [41] Another initiative proposes giving Roskomnadzor right to block any domain within the .ru TLD without a court order. [42]

In February 2016, the business daily Vedomosti reported on a draft law by the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications titled "On an Autonomous Internet System". The bill calls for placing the domains .ru and .рф under government control and would make installation of the Russian state surveillance system SORM mandatory. [2]

Ban on VPN and anonymizer providers

A ban on all software and websites related to circumventing internet filtering in Russia, including VPN software, anonymizers, and instructions on how to circumvent government website blocking, was passed in 2017. [43]

Increase in Internet censorship from 2014

According to data published by the Russian Society for Internet Users founded by members of the Presidential Council for Human Rights, instances of censorship increased by a factor of 1.5 from 2013 to 2014. The incidents documented include not only instances of Internet blocking but also the use of force to shut down Internet users, such as beatings of bloggers or police raids. [44]

Human rights NGO Agora reported that instances of Internet censorship increased ninefold from 2014 to 2015, rising from 1,019 to 9,022. [45]

In April 2018, a Moscow court ordered the ban and blockage of the messaging app Telegram under anti-terrorism laws, for refusing to cooperate with the FSB and provide access to encrypted communications. [46] [47] Sales of virtual private network services increased significantly in the wake of the ban. [48]

The FSB has also started lobbying against any "external" satellite Internet access initiatives, including proposals to introduce stricter controls against satellite Internet receivers, [49] as well as opposition against Roskosmos taking orders to bring OneWeb satellites to space. [50]

In December 2018, Google was fined 500,000 rubles for not removing blacklisted sites from its search results. [51]

In March 2019, legislation was passed to ban the publication of "unreliable socially significant information", and materials that show "clear disrespect" for the Russian Federation or "bodies exercising state power". [52] Russian media freedom watchdog Roskomsvoboda reported that a number of people were charged with administrative fines for simply sharing a video about insufficient school places in Krasnodar Krai on their Facebook pages, because the video was authored by "Open Russia", who is considered an "undesirable organization" by Russian authorities. [53] The watchdog also noted an increasing trend of law enforcement using article 20.33 of the administrative violations code ("undesirable organizations"), which seems to be gradually replacing article 282 of the criminal code ("extremism") as the primary censorship instrument. [54]

Deep packet inspection

In April 2021 Roskomnadzor started enforcing throttling of Twitter traffic in Russia. The throttling was implemented with detection of domains t.co, twimg.com, and twitter.com wrapped in wildcards. Target website domains are being detected mostly in Server Name Indication part of TLS handshake. The latter resulted in throttling of all domains that contained "t.co" substring, including microsoft.com etc. (An example of the Scunthorpe problem.) [55] TLS extensions that would prevent censorship using SNI, such as Encrypted SNI, were already blocked in 2020. [56]

In July 2021 GlobalCheck project, which monitors the actual scale and efficiency of the censorship, for the first time noticed widespread use of deep packet inspection (DPI) across large mobile providers which resulted in domains related to political activist Alexei Navalny being efficiently blocked across around 50% of Russian networks. [57] The DPI solution, called TSPU (Russian: ТСПУ, технические средства противодействия угрозам, English: technical measures for threat protection), has been introduced in 2019 legislation that also proposed isolation of Russian segment of the Internet. [58] [59] [60] The change, passed under the rationale of protecting Russian network from external attacks, has been described by activists as actually introduced with intention of strengthening the content censorship that has proven ineffective in many cases in the past. [61]

The introduction of TSPU devices was associated by a number of problems experienced by players of World of Warships and other games, that was described as a side effect of the devices blocking a broad range of UDP ports. [62]

Registration of instant messenger users

In 2021 a new regulation was passed that requires all operators of instant messaging services in Russia to establish identity of users creating accounts in these services by means of verification of their mobile number. [63] SIM card registration using passport is mandatory since 2010's. [64] Using a public Wi-Fi also requires registration using mobile number. [65]

Blocking Tor

In November 2021 users in Russia started reporting issues with accessing Tor, while Roskomnadzor published an announcement on introduction of centralized blocking of "means of circumvention" of censorship. [66]

In December 2021, dissident authors Andrei Soldatov and Irina Borogan accused western technology companies like Keysight Technologies, Supermicro and Silicom of helping authorities in Moscow block Tor. [67]

Monitoring

SORM system

Russia's System of Operational-Investigatory Measures (SORM) requires telecommunications operators to install hardware provided by the Federal Security Service (FSB). It allows the agency to unilaterally monitor users' communications metadata and content, including phone calls, email traffic and web browsing activity. [30] Metadata can be obtained without a warrant. [30] In 2014, the system was expanded to include social media platforms, and the Ministry of Communications ordered companies to install new equipment with Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) capability. [30]

Data sovereignty

The "Bloggers law" (passed July 2014) is an amendment to existing anti-terrorism legislation which includes data localization and data retention provisions. Among other changes, it requires all web services to store the user data of Russian citizens on servers within the country. Sites which did not comply with this requirement by September 2016 may be added to the internet blacklist. [68] [69] Since August 2014, the law requires operators of free Wi-Fi hotspots (e.g. in restaurants, libraries, cafes etc.) to collect personal details of all users, identify them using passports, and store the data. [70]

The "Yarovaya law" (passed July 2016) is a package of several legislative amendments which include extensions to data retention. Among other changes, it requires telecom operators to store recordings of phone conversations, text messages and users' internet traffic for up to 6 months, as well as metadata for up to 3 years. This data as well as "all other information necessary" is available to authorities on request and without a court order. [71]

As of January 2018, companies registered in Russia as "organizers of information dissemination", such as online messaging applications, will not be permitted to allow unidentified users. [72]

Mass media

On Mass Media
  • Federal Law No. 2121-1, "On Mass Media"
Citation 2121-1
Passed27 December 1991

The federal telecommunications regulator Roskomnadzor can issue warnings to the editorial board of mass media and websites registered as mass media concerning "abuse of mass media freedom." [2] According to the "Law on Mass Media", such abuse can include "extremist" content, information on recreational drug use, the propagation of cruelty and violence, as well as obscene language. [2] [73]

If a media outlet receives two warnings within a year, Roskomnadzor can request a court order shutting down the media outlet entirely. [2]

Internet blacklist

  • On Amending Federal Law "On the Protection of Children from Information Harmful to Their Health and Development and Other Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation"
Citation 139-FZ
Passed11 July 2012
Commenced1 November 2012
Summary
Implements a central Internet blacklist ("single register")

Legislation

In July 2012, Russia's State Duma passed a law requiring the establishment of an Internet blacklist. The law took effect on 1 November 2012. [74] The blacklist Is administered by the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) and the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia. [30]

  • On Amending Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection"
Citation 398-FZ
Passed20 December 2013
Summary
Allows additional categories of content to be blocked without a court order

At the time of introduction the list was described as a means for the protection of children from harmful content; particularly content which glorifies drug usage, advocates suicide or describes suicide methods, or contains child pornography. [75] In 2013 legislative amendments allowed the blocking of content "suspected in extremism", "calling for illegal meetings", "inciting hatred" and any other actions "violating the established order". [38] This content can be blocked without a court order by the office of the Prosecutor General. [76]

  • On Amending Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection"
Citation 276-FZ
Passed21 July 2017
Enacted29 July 2017
Commenced1 November 2017
Bill citation 195446-7
Summary
Bans all software and websites related to circumventing internet filtering in Russia

In July 2017, Vladimir Putin signed a bill, which took effect 1 November 2017, which bans all software and websites related to circumventing internet filtering in Russia, including anonymizers and Virtual private network (VPN) services which do not implement the blacklist, and instructional material on how to do so. [43] [72]

A number of individual instances of censorship were taken by Russian citizens to the European Court of Human Rights (Vladimir Kharitonov v. Russia, OOO Flavus and Others v. Russia, Engels v. Russia) and in 2020 ruled that actions of Russian law enforcement in these cases was in clear violation of articles 10 and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights. [77]

Implementation

The implementation of the blacklist is outlined in a government decree issued in October 2012. [78]

Roskomnadzor offers a website where users can check to see whether a given URL or IP address is in the blacklist, and can also report websites which contain prohibited materials to the authorities. After a submission is verified, Roskomnadzor will inform the website's owner and hosting provider.[ citation needed ] If the material is not removed within three days, the website will be added to the blacklist, and all Russian ISPs must block it. [79] The full content of the blacklist initially was not available to the general public,[ citation needed ] although soon after it was implemented, a leaked list of blacklisted websites was published by a LiveJournal user on 12 November 2012. [80]

The searchable blacklist interface was made available as a full list by activists. As of July 2017 it includes over 70,000 entries. [81]

Reaction

Russian Wikipedia during its 2012 protest against the blacklist Ru-wiki-blackout.jpg
Russian Wikipedia during its 2012 protest against the blacklist

Reporters Without Borders criticized the procedure by which entries are added to the blacklist as "extremely opaque", and viewed it as part of an attack on the freedom of information in Russia. [82] In 2012, when the banned content only included child pornography, drugs and suicide, the human rights activists have expressed fear that the blacklist may be used to censor democracy-oriented websites [75] (which indeed happened the next year). [38] And a Lenta.ru editorial noted that the criteria for prohibited content are so broad that even the website of the ruling United Russia party could in theory be blacklisted. [83] However, the idea was at that time generally supported by the Russian public: in a September 2012 Levada Center survey, 63% of respondents had expressed support for "Internet censorship", [84] [85] though any kind of censorship is banned under the Constitution of Russia.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has criticized the blacklist, stating: "EFF is profoundly opposed to government censorship of the Internet, which violates its citizens right to freedom of expression... We are especially concerned about the censorship of independent news and opposing political views, which are essential to a thriving civil society. Russians who wish to circumvent government censorship can continue to read these websites via the Tor Browser." [86]

Instances of censorship

A number of websites maintain lists of websites currently blocked in Russia, based on different sources of information. [87] [88]

George Soros blocked

President Vladimir Putin signed the law in late 2013 about procedure for the Prosecutor General of Russia and Prosecutor General's Office to decide which websites may be blocked arbitrarily. Then the Russian Government passed the law about undesirable organizations in 2015, after which all suspected 'undesirable organizations' websites could also be arbitrarily blocked by the Prosecutor General's Office. After that, the 'undesirable' websites of philanthropist George Soros and a number of other were blocked in Russia. [89]

The German Marshall Fund

The Russian government announced that the website of a US-based think tank, The German Marshall Fund, was to be blocked on March 11, 2018, without any explanation. In total, 22 undesirable organizations were blocked between 2015 and 2020, including Open Russia, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Open Society Foundations, the U.S. Russia Foundation for Economic Advancement and the Rule of Law, Germany's European Platform for Democratic Elections, Lithuania's International Elections Study Center, Atlantic Council and the like. [90] [91]

Smart Voting

In September 2021, ahead of the State Duma elections, several actions were taken to suppress Alexei Navalny's Smart Voting website and mobile app, which promoted opposition candidates in the election.

A trademark on "Smart Voting" was secured by an agricultural company, Woolintertrade, which successfully received an injunction against Google and Yandex requiring them to censor queries for the string. [92]

Roskomnadzor intensified use of TSPUs in what was interpreted as an attempt to suppress use of the website, including attempts to throttle IP addresses associated with Google services such as Google App Engine, and added Smart Voting's URLs to its blacklist as "extremist" materials, as they were classified as a continuation of the operations of the "extremist" [93] Anti-Corruption Foundation. The targeting of Google Public DNS led to severe connectivity problems with various services, including the Central Bank of Russia. [94] [95]

Roskomnadzor ordered Apple and Google to remove Smart Voting-related materials from their platforms, threatening the companies with fines for election interference. [95] The companies complied with the order, which also included a brief block of Google Docs when Navalny published Smart Voting materials on the platform, and removal of videos containing the material on YouTube. [96] [97] [98] Messaging service Telegram censored a chatbot tied to Smart Voting from its platform, stating that it was required to comply in order to comply with the terms of service of Apple and Google's app stores. [99] [100]

Russian invasion of Ukraine

ISP page users are redirected to after trying to visit the BBC's website. Russia Censorship Error Page.png
ISP page users are redirected to after trying to visit the BBC's website.

Internet censorship in Russia intensified in late-February 2022 amid the country's invasion of Ukraine, due to Roskomnadzor orders and federal laws prohibiting the dissemination of dissent and "knowingly false" information regarding the Russian military—which includes any materials and reporting that does not align with official government information and statements. These orders have applied primarily to foreign (such as BBC News, Deutsche Welle, RFE/RL, Voice of America, and the Ukraine Ministry of Internal Affairs-run Look for Your Own) and independent (such as Current Time TV, Interfax, and Meduza) media outlets. Facebook and Twitter were also ordered blocked in retaliation for their censorship of state-owned media outlets such as RT and Sputnik. [101] [102]

On 11 March 2022, Belarusian political police GUBOPiK arrested and detained Mark Bernstein, a Minsk-based Russian Wikipedia editor who was editing the article about the invasion, accusing him of the "spread of anti-Russian materials" and of violating Russian "fake news" law. [103] [104] [105]

In April–July 2022, the Russian authorities put several Wikipedia articles on their list of forbidden sites, [106] [107] [108] and then ordered search engines to mark Wikipedia as a violator of Russian laws. [109]

Russian authorities have blocked or removed about 138,000 websites since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. [110]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Individuals may face fines as much as $23,000 and (or) up to 15 days in jails. [4] [5] [6] [7]
  2. ↑ [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

Related Research Articles

The Great Firewall is the combination of legislative actions and technologies enforced by the People's Republic of China to regulate the Internet domestically. Its role in internet censorship in China is to block access to selected foreign websites and to slow down cross-border internet traffic. The Great Firewall operates by checking transmission control protocol (TCP) packets for keywords or sensitive words. If the keywords or sensitive words appear in the TCP packets, access will be closed. If one link is closed, more links from the same machine will be blocked by the Great Firewall. The effect includes: limiting access to foreign information sources, blocking foreign internet tools and mobile apps, and requiring foreign companies to adapt to domestic regulations.

Censorship in Belarus, although prohibited by the country's constitution, is enforced by a number of laws. These include a law that makes insulting the president punishable by up to five years in prison, and another that makes criticizing Belarus abroad punishable by up to two years in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet censorship</span> Legal control of the internet

Internet censorship is the legal control or suppression of what can be accessed, published, or viewed on the Internet. Censorship is most often applied to specific internet domains but exceptionally may extend to all Internet resources located outside the jurisdiction of the censoring state. Internet censorship may also put restrictions on what information can be made internet accessible. Organizations providing internet access – such as schools and libraries – may choose to preclude access to material that they consider undesirable, offensive, age-inappropriate or even illegal, and regard this as ethical behavior rather than censorship. Individuals and organizations may engage in self-censorship of material they publish, for moral, religious, or business reasons, to conform to societal norms, political views, due to intimidation, or out of fear of legal or other consequences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Media freedom in Russia</span>

The current government of Russia maintains laws and practices that make it difficult for directors of mass-media outlets to carry out independent policies. These laws and practices also hinder the ability of journalists to access sources of information and to work without outside pressure. Media inside Russia includes television and radio channels, periodicals, and Internet media, which according to the laws of the Russian Federation may be either state or private property.

Lenta.ru is a Russian-language online newspaper. Based in Moscow, it is owned by Rambler Media Group. In 2013, the Alexander Mamut-owned companies "SUP Media" and "Rambler-Afisha" merged to form "Afisha.Rambler.SUP", which owns Lenta.ru. The online newspaper is one of the most popular Russian language online resources with over 600 thousand visitors daily.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Censorship of YouTube</span> Censorship of the video sharing media site

Censorship of video-sharing platform YouTube occurs to varying degrees in many countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roskomnadzor</span> Russian government agency

The Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, abbreviated as Roskomnadzor (RKN), is the Russian federal executive agency responsible for monitoring, controlling and censoring Russian mass media. Its areas of responsibility include electronic media, mass communications, information technology and telecommunications, supervising compliance with the law, protecting the confidentiality of personal data being processed, and organizing the work of the radio-frequency service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Censorship</span> Suppression of speech or other information

Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments, private institutions. When an individual such as an author or other creator engages in censorship of their own works or speech, it is referred to as self-censorship. General censorship occurs in a variety of different media, including speech, books, music, films, and other arts, the press, radio, television, and the Internet for a variety of claimed reasons including national security, to control obscenity, pornography, and hate speech, to protect children or other vulnerable groups, to promote or restrict political or religious views, and to prevent slander and libel. Specific rules and regulations regarding censorship vary between legal jurisdictions and/or private organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lurkmore</span> Online encyclopedia focusing on Internet subcultures, folklore, and memes

Lurkmore or Lurkomorye was an informal Russian-language MediaWiki-powered online encyclopedia, based on the English-wiki website lurkmore.com, focusing on Internet subcultures, folklore, and memes. As of December 17, 2019, Lurkmore contained over 9000 articles. It was one of the most popular humor and internet meme-related websites of the Russian internet.

Facebook is a social networking service that has been gradually replacing traditional media channels since 2010. Facebook has limited moderation of the content posted to its site. Because the site indiscriminately displays material publicly posted by users, Facebook can, in effect, threaten oppressive governments. Facebook can simultaneously propagate fake news, hate speech, and misinformation, thereby undermining the credibility of online platforms and social media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Censorship of Wikipedia</span> Censorship of Wikipedia by governments

Censorship of Wikipedia by governments has occurred widely in countries including China, Iran, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela. Some instances are examples of widespread Internet censorship in general that includes Wikipedia content. Others are indicative of measures to prevent the viewing of specific content deemed offensive. The duration of different blocks has varied from hours to years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Censorship of Twitter</span> Restrictions to access on Twitter by governments

Censorship of Twitter, refers to Internet censorship by governments that block access to X. Twitter censorship also includes governmental notice and take down requests to Twitter, which it enforces in accordance with its Terms of Service when a government or authority submits a valid removal request to Twitter indicating that specific content published on the platform is illegal in their jurisdiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet censorship in South Korea</span>

Internet censorship in South Korea is prevalent, and contains some unique elements such as the blocking of pro-North Korea websites, and to a lesser extent, Japanese websites, which led to it being categorized as "pervasive" in the conflict/security area by OpenNet Initiative. South Korea is also one of the few developed countries where pornography is largely illegal, with the exception of social media websites which are a common source of legal pornography in the country. Any and all material deemed "harmful" or subversive by the state is censored. The country also has a "cyber defamation law", which allow the police to crack down on comments deemed "hateful" without any reports from victims, with citizens being sentenced for such offenses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian Internet Restriction Bill</span> Federal law of Russian Federation

Russian Internet restriction bill is a law passed by the Russian State Duma in 2012 which replaced the procedure of shutting down telecom operators by prosecutors' orders with a blacklist of Internet sites containing alleged child pornography, drug-related material, extremist material, and other content illegal in Russia. This blacklist was supposed to be implemented and supervised by a self-regulating NGO of Internet users, but it was never created and this duty was assumed by government agency Roskomnadzor. The bill also introduced several other changes in the law, including liability for providers of telecom services for failing to protect children. Some critics expressed concern that the bill could be used to censor the Internet. Others noted that it would be expensive and, as written, contained many technical problems that would negatively impact legitimate Internet use.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Network sovereignty</span> Effort to create boundaries on a network

In internet governance, network sovereignty, also called digital sovereignty or cyber sovereignty, is the effort of a governing entity, such as a state, to create boundaries on a network and then exert a form of control, often in the form of law enforcement over such boundaries.

GitHub has been the target of censorship from governments using methods ranging from local Internet service provider blocks, intermediary blocking using methods such as DNS hijacking and man-in-the-middle attacks, and denial-of-service attacks on GitHub's servers from countries including China, India, Iraq, Russia, and Turkey. In all of these cases, GitHub has been eventually unblocked after backlash from users and technology businesses or compliance from GitHub.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Block of Wikipedia in Russia</span>

The free online encyclopedia Wikipedia was briefly blocked in Russia in August 2015. Some articles of Wikipedia were included into various censorship lists disseminated by the government. Further threats to block were made following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internet censorship and surveillance in Europe</span>

This list of Internet censorship and surveillance in Europe provides information on the types and levels of Internet censorship and surveillance that is occurring in countries in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Censorship in Russia</span>

Censorship is controlled by the Government of Russia and by civil society in the Russian Federation, applying to the content and the diffusion of information, printed documents, music, works of art, cinema and photography, radio and television, web sites and portals, and in some cases private correspondence, with the aim of limiting or preventing the dissemination of ideas and information that the Russian state or public opinion consider to be a danger.

References

  1. ↑ Paul Goble (2015-03-29). "FSB Increasingly Involved in Misuse of 'Anti-Extremism' Laws, SOVA Says". The Interpreter Magazine. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Russia | Country report | Freedom on the Net | 2016". Freedom House . Archived from the original on 2020-01-24. Retrieved 2017-07-04.
  3. 1 2 "Examples of forbidden content". Zapretno.info. 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-10-30. Retrieved 2014-10-29.
  4. ↑ "Russia's Putin signs law banning fake news, insulting the state online". Reuters. 2019-03-18. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
  5. ↑ "Putin Signs 'Fake News,' 'Internet Insults' Bills Into Law". The Moscow Times. 2019-03-18. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
  6. ↑ "Insulting Putin May Now Land You in Jail Under a New Russian Law". 2019-03-18. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
  7. ↑ Sant, Shannon Van (18 March 2019). "Russia Criminalizes The Spread Of Online News Which 'Disrespects' The Government". NPR.org. Retrieved 2019-07-06.
  8. ↑ "European Rights Court Faults Russia Over Website Blocking". Barron's . Agence France Presse. 23 June 2020. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  9. ↑ "Russia" Archived 2018-07-22 at the Wayback Machine , Freedom on the Net 2009, Freedom House, 2009. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  10. ↑ "Russia" Archived 2018-07-22 at the Wayback Machine , Freedom on the Net 2011, Freedom House, 2011. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  11. ↑ "Russia" Archived 2018-07-22 at the Wayback Machine , Freedom on the Net 2012, Freedom House, 2012. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  12. ↑ "Russia" Archived 2018-07-22 at the Wayback Machine , Freedom on the Net 2013, Freedom House, 2013. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  13. ↑ "Russia". Freedom on the Net 2014. Freedom House. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 26 October 2015.
  14. ↑ "Russia". Freedom on the Net 2015. Freedom House. Archived from the original on 6 May 2019. Retrieved 3 January 2016.
  15. ↑ "Russia". Freedom on the Net 2016. Freedom House. Archived from the original on 24 January 2020. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  16. ↑ "Russia". Freedom on the Net 2017. Freedom House. Archived from the original on 24 April 2019. Retrieved 26 March 2018.
  17. ↑ "Russia". Freedom on the Net 2018. Freedom House. Archived from the original on 21 November 2018. Retrieved 22 July 2019.
  18. ↑ Internet Enemies Archived 2012-03-23 at the Wayback Machine , Reporters Without Borders (Paris), 12 March 2012
  19. ↑ "Internet Enemies", Enemies of the Internet 2014: Entities at the heart of censorship and surveillance, Reporters Without Borders (Paris), 11 March 2014. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
  20. ↑ "ONI Country Profiles", Research section at the OpenNet Initiative web site, a collaborative partnership of the Citizen Lab at the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto; the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University; and the SecDev Group, Ottawa
  21. ↑ Soldatov, Andrei; Borogan, Irina (2016-11-29). "Putin brings China's Great Firewall to Russia in cybersecurity pact". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2017-07-04.
  22. ↑ "China: The architect of Putin's firewall". Eurozine. 2017-02-21. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  23. ↑ "Russia's chief internet censor enlists China's know-how". Financial Times. 2016-04-29. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
  24. ↑ Tests scheduled: Law on Runet autonomy to come into force soon
  25. 1 2 "Twitter and Facebook restricted in Russia amid conflict with Ukraine". NetBlocks . 2022-02-26.
  26. 1 2 Fischer, Sara (2022-02-26). "Russia restricts Twitter, Facebook during Ukraine attack". Axios.
  27. ↑ Brandom, Russell (2022-02-26). "Russia blocks Twitter as Ukraine invasion escalates". The Verge.
  28. ↑ "Russia Is Now Blocking Twitter". VICE News. 2022-02-26.
  29. ↑ Allyn, Bobby; Selyukh, Alina (4 March 2022). "Russia blocks access to Facebook". NPR. Retrieved 14 February 2023.
  30. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Maréchal, Nathalie (2017-03-22). "Networked Authoritarianism and the Geopolitics of Information: Understanding Russian Internet Policy". Media and Communication. 5 (1): 29–41. doi: 10.17645/mac.v5i1.808 . ISSN   2183-2439 . Retrieved 2017-07-03.
  31. 1 2 "Report by Mr. Alvaro Gil-Robles on his Visits to the Russian Federation". Council of Europe, Commissioner for Human Rights. 2005-04-20. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
  32. ↑ 33m internet users in Russia, IT & Telecoms in Russia
  33. ↑ "Percentage of Individuals using the Internet 2000–2012", International Telecommunication Union (Geneva), June 2013, retrieved 22 June 2013
  34. ↑ "Statistics". ITU. Retrieved 2017-07-04.
  35. ↑ "Russian prosecutors eye Internet censorship", Agence France-Presse (AFP), 23 April 2008.
  36. ↑ Russia "Is No Enemy of the Internet" Archived 2009-06-25 at the Wayback Machine , Kirill Pankratov, The Moscow Times, 8 April 2009
  37. ↑ "Address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation" (full text) (in Russian), (digest [ permanent dead link ]), November 2009
  38. 1 2 3 "Путин подписал закон о блокировке сайтов за экстремизм" . Retrieved 2015-08-23.
  39. ↑ Service, Forum 18 News. "Forum 18 Archive: RUSSIA: Bans on more literature, website and video – 3 December 2014". www.forum18.org. Retrieved 2015-08-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  40. ↑ Service, Forum 18 News. "Forum 18 Archive: RUSSIA: More literature, website and video bans, but one partially overturned – 20 March 2015". www.forum18.org. Retrieved 2015-08-23.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  41. ↑ "Совбез РФ будет бороться с "размыванием духовных ценностей" в интернете". Новая Газета. Retrieved 2015-10-19.
  42. ↑ "ДНИ.РУ / Эксперты оценили полномочия Роскомнадзора". ДНИ.РУ. Retrieved 2015-11-15.
  43. 1 2 "Putin bans VPNs in web browsing crackdown". BBC News. 2017-07-31. Retrieved 2017-07-31.
  44. ↑ "Russia Update: Government Further Restricts Internet Freedom". The Interpreter Magazine. 2015-02-04. Retrieved 2015-02-04.
  45. ↑ "Russia's internet censorship grew nine-fold in 2015: Report". The Times of India. Retrieved 2016-03-02.
  46. ↑ Roth, Andrew (2018-04-13). "Moscow court bans Telegram messaging app". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-04-13.
  47. ↑ MacFarquhar, Neil (13 April 2018). "Russian Court Bans Telegram App After 18-Minute Hearing". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 April 2018.
  48. ↑ "VPN Sales Soar After Russia Bans Telegram App, Media Reports" . Retrieved 2018-05-21.
  49. ↑ "Спутниковый интернет отдают под контроль государства". roskomsvoboda.org. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  50. ↑ "Спутниковый интернет vs ФСБ: развитие технологий или самоизоляция?". roskomsvoboda.org. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  51. ↑ Axelrod, Tal (2018-12-11). "Google fined in Russia over search results: report". TheHill. Retrieved 2019-02-11.
  52. ↑ Lee, Timothy B. (2019-03-18). "Vladimir Putin signs sweeping Internet-censorship bills". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  53. ↑ ""Нежелательный" видеоролик о нехватке школ продолжает собирать штрафы". roskomsvoboda.org. Retrieved 2019-05-11.
  54. ↑ "Административная форма презумпции виновности". roskomsvoboda.org. Retrieved 2019-05-11.
  55. ↑ "Throttling of Twitter in Russia".
  56. ↑ "Russia's Digital Development Ministry wants to ban the latest encryption technologies from the RuNet". Meduza. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  57. ↑ "GlobalCheck". globalcheck.net. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  58. ↑ "Russia Takes a Big Step Toward Internet Isolation". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  59. ↑ "Academics: Russia deployed new technology to throttle Twitter's traffic". The Record by Recorded Future. 2021-04-06. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  60. ↑ "Deciphering Russia's "Sovereign Internet Law" | DGAP". dgap.org. Retrieved 2021-07-28.
  61. ↑ "Закон о "Суверенном Рунете" стал применяться для политического давления и сокрытия начала блокировок". roskomsvoboda.org (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-07-30.
  62. ↑ "Проблемы с авторизацией и выбросы из боя | World of Warships". worldofwarships.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  63. ↑ "Правительство РФ обязало мессенджеры регистрировать пользователей по паспортным данным". www.znak.com. Archived from the original on 2021-10-25. Retrieved 2021-10-25.
  64. ↑ "Russia tightening up SIM user registration". www.commsupdate.com. Retrieved 2021-10-25.
  65. ↑ "Did Russia just ban anonymous use of public Wi-Fi?". The Daily Dot. 2014-08-08. Retrieved 2021-10-25.
  66. ↑ Soldatov, Andrei (2021-12-07). "Why the Kremlin Blocking TOR Is a Big Deal". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 2021-12-07.
  67. ↑ "Opinion | How Western tech companies are helping Russia censor the Internet - The Washington Post". The Washington Post .
  68. ↑ "Facebook, Gmail, Skype face Russia ban under 'anti-terror' plan". CNET. 23 July 2014. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  69. ↑ "Russian MPs back law on internet data storage". BBC News. Retrieved 24 July 2014.
  70. ↑ "Passport now required to use public Wi-Fi in Russia". RAPSI. 2014-08-08. Retrieved 2014-09-22.
  71. ↑ "Russia: 'Big Brother' Law Harms Security, Rights". Human Rights Watch. 2016-07-12. Retrieved 2017-07-02.
  72. 1 2 "Russia: New Legislation Attacks Internet Anonymity". Human Rights Watch. 2017-08-01. Retrieved 2017-08-01.
  73. ↑ Consultant Plus
  74. ↑ In Russian, the blacklist is officially called the Единый реестр доменных имён, указателей страниц сайтов в сети «Интернет» и сетевых адресов, позволяющих идентифицировать сайты в сети «Интернет», содержащие информацию, распространение которой в Российской Федерации запрещено, which translates to Common register of domain names, Internet website page locators, and network addresses that allow identifying Internet websites which contain information that is prohibited for distribution in the Russian Federation. Russian sources generally refer to it under the shortened name "Common register of prohibited websites" (Единый реестр запрещённых сайтов) or Common register of websites with prohibited information (Единый реестр сайтов с запрещённой информацией). English-language sources for the most part simply refer to it as the country's Internet blacklist.
  75. 1 2 "Russia internet blacklist law takes effect". BBC. 31 October 2012. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
  76. ↑ Дума одобрила закон о внесудебной блокировке сайтов [Duma approves law on extra-judicial blocking of websites]. BBC Russian Service (in Russian). 20 December 2013. Retrieved 2017-07-13.
  77. ↑ "Judgment Kharitonov v. Russia and three other applications - official decisions to block websites".
  78. ↑ "Постановление Правительства Российской Федерации от 26 октября 2012 г. N 1101 г. Москва" [Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation no. 1101 of 26 October 2012 in the city of Moscow] (in Russian). Rossiyskaya Gazeta . Retrieved 3 November 2012.
  79. ↑ Bigg, Claire (2 November 2012). "Russia's New Internet Blacklist". The Atlantic . The Atlantic Monthly Group. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
  80. ↑ Список запрещенных сайтов утек в интернет [The list of prohibited websites has been leaked on the Internet] (in Russian). Lenta.Ru. 12 November 2012. Retrieved 12 November 2012.
  81. ↑ Реестр запрещенных сайтов [Registry of banned sites]. reestr.ruBlacklist.net (in Russian). Retrieved 2017-07-05.
  82. ↑ "Internet access barred as wave of new legislation threatens freedom of information". Reporters Without Borders. 1 November 2012. Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
  83. ↑ Подсудный день (in Russian). Lenta.Ru. 1 November 2012. Retrieved 3 November 2012.
  84. ↑ "Россияне поддерживают цензуру в Интернете" ("Russians support censorship of the Internet"), Levada Center, 10 October 2012. (in Russian). (English translation).
  85. ↑ "Over 60% of Russians want Internet censorship – poll" Archived 2014-03-17 at the Wayback Machine , Interfax News, 11 October 2012
  86. ↑ "Russia Blocks Access to Major Independent News Sites | Electronic Frontier Foundation". Eff.org. 2014-03-13. Retrieved 2014-03-17.
  87. ↑ "Antizapret.info". Archived from the original on 2014-07-10. Retrieved 2014-08-02.
  88. ↑ "ФЕДЕРАЛЬНЫЙ СПИСОК ЭКСТРЕМИСТСКИХ МАТЕРИАЛОВ – БИБЛИОТЕКА" . Retrieved 2014-08-02.
  89. ↑ "Russian lawmakers want to expand the government's power to block websites without court oversight". Meduza . October 2, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  90. ↑ "Russia Declares U.S. German Marshall Fund "Undesirable"". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. March 21, 2020. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  91. ↑ "Перечень иностранных и международных неправительственных организаций, деятельность которых признана нежелательной на территории российской федерации" [List of foreign and international non-governmental organizations which actions are recognized unwanted on the territory of the Russian Federation]. Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation (in Russian). Archived from the original on April 14, 2020. Retrieved May 9, 2020.
  92. ↑ "Russia: Google told to clamp down on Navalny's 'Smart Voting'". DW. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  93. ↑ "Russia Blacklists Navalny's Political and Activist Movements as 'Extremist'". The Moscow Times. 9 June 2021.
  94. ↑ "UAWire - Russian Central Bank communication system fails after Kremlin attempts to shut down Google services". www.uawire.org. Retrieved 2021-09-15.
  95. 1 2 "Under pressure How the Russian authorities have expanded their fight against Alexey Navalny's 'Smart Vote' initiative ahead of September's parliamentary elections". Meduza. Retrieved 2021-09-15.
  96. ↑ "Google Blocks Russian Opposition Voting Recommendations". The Moscow Times. 2021-09-19. Retrieved 2021-09-19.
  97. ↑ "Apple and Google accused of 'political censorship' over Alexei Navalny app". the Guardian. 2021-09-17. Retrieved 2021-09-19.
  98. ↑ "Russia Starts Blocking Google Docs After Navalny Shares Anti-Kremlin Vote Strategy – Monitor". The Moscow Times. September 16, 2021. Retrieved September 21, 2021.
  99. ↑ "Telegram messenger blocks Russia opposition bot during vote". RFI. 2021-09-18. Archived from the original on 18 September 2021. Retrieved 2021-09-18.
  100. ↑ "Telegram Messenger Blocks Navalny's Bot During Vote". RadioFreeEurope. 2021-09-18. Archived from the original on 18 September 2021. Retrieved 2021-09-19.
  101. ↑ Troianovski, Anton (2022-03-04). "Russia Takes Censorship to New Extremes, Stifling War Coverage". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  102. ↑ Vincent, James (2022-03-01). "YouTube blocks Russian news channels RT and Sputnik in Europe". The Verge. Retrieved 2022-04-29.
  103. ↑ "В Беларуси задержали Марка Бернштейна — активиста и популяризатора интернет-энциклопедии Wikipedia.org". Zerkalo.io (in Russian). 2022-03-11. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
  104. ↑ "Wiki-активист Марк Бернштейн задержан за "антироссийские материалы"". reform.by (in Russian). 2022-03-11. Retrieved 2022-03-11.
  105. ↑ "Prominent editor of Russian Wikipedia pages detained in Belarus".
  106. ↑ "Роскомнадзор обязал поисковики маркировать "Википедию" как нарушителя российских законов из‑за неудаления статей о войне в Украине". Mediazona (in Russian). Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  107. ↑ "Роскомнадзор потребовал от "Википедии" удалить пять статей про военные преступления в Украине". Mediazona (in Russian). Retrieved 2022-04-04.
  108. ↑ "РКН потребовал от "Википедии" удалить из статьи про Путина разделы об Украине". Mediazona (in Russian). Retrieved 2022-04-13.
  109. ↑ "Russia to punish Wikimedia Foundation over Ukraine conflict 'fakes'". Reuters . Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  110. ↑ "Russia Has Blocked 138K Websites Since Ukraine Invasion, Prosecutor Says". The Moscow Times. 8 August 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.