In its Freedom on the Net 2011 report, Freedom House, an American NGO that monitors freedom progress or restrictions around the world, assigned Russia the status of a “partly free” country. The report acknowledges that the Russian Internet has remained a “relatively uncensored platform for public debate and the expression of political opinions,” in contrast with more tightened television and press.
However, “Internet freedom has corroded,” says Freedom House.
While various international blog-hosting services are freely available in Russia, “YouTube has come under threat in some localities,” notes the report. “For example, in July 2010, a court in Komsomolsk-on-Amur issued a decision instructing a local ISP to block YouTube, along with four other websites, because they hosted extremist content including copies of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and skinhead videos. The ruling was later overturned after the provider filed an appeal.”
Social networks like Facebook, its national equivalent Vkontakte, and Twitter as well as blogging platforms are also freely available. But Freedom House considers Alisher Usmanov, the business magnate who owns important stakes in Russia’s leading social networks and blogging platforms, to be “Kremlin-friendly,” like several other prominent businessmen owning Internet sites.
Freedom House also believes that MTS, VimpelCom and MegaFon, the three leading Russian mobile operators, though “formally independent”, have “indirect ties to the government.” MegaFon is said to be “connected with former minister of telecommunications Leonid Reyman,” while MTS is “linked to the Moscow regional leadership.”
25 cases of blogger harassment
Regarding violations of the right to free speech, Freedom House counted that “the police and the prosecutor’s office have launched at least 25 criminal cases against bloggers and forum commentators since January 2009.” “While some cases were against individuals who posted clearly extremist content, others appear to be more politically motivated. The most severe and widely known sentence was that of Irek Murtazin, a Tatarstan blogger and journalist who received almost two years in prison in November 2009 for defamation.”
“In addition, dozens of blogs have reportedly been attacked in recent years by a hacker team called the Hell Brigade.”
“Attempts to establish a comprehensive, centralized filtering system have been abandoned,” but “content is often removed on the grounds that it violates Russia’s laws against ‘extremism.'” The report mentions, among others, the case of ISPs “blocking access to the radical Islamist website Kavkaz Center” in late 2009, as well as the fact that “at almost the same time, the wireless provider Yota blocked several opposition sites.”
According to Freedom House, Russian Internet users could be “subject to extralegal surveillance of their online activities,” but to an unknown extent. “Since 2000, all ISPs have been obliged to install the ‘system for operational investigative measures,’ or SORM-2, which gives the Federal Security Service (FSB) and police access to Internet traffic,” reminds the report. “The system is analogous to the Carnivore/DCS1000 software used by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and operates as a packet-sniffer that can analyze and log data passing through a digital network. However, no known cases of SORM-2 use have been reported, and the efficiency of the system has been seriously questioned.”
