Legal matters

Yandex caves to Russia’s federal censor in dispute over Internet piracy

August 30, 2018

Roskomnadzor, the Russian telecom and Internet regulator, threatened to block Yandex’s video service, following an August 24 verdict by the Moscow City Court ordering the website to remove all hyperlinks to pirated content from its search results. Earlier this month, several television stations filed lawsuits against Yandex, where links to pirated copies of their content …

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“Groundless persecution” of social media users raises growing protests in Russia

August 15, 2018

The authorities’ propensity to crackdown on social media users for their activity with supposedly unlawful content has become excessive even in the taste of such an established and little opposition-minded Internet business as Mail.Ru Group. The group dominates the Russian social media scene with its properties VK (Vkontakte) and OK (Odnoklassniki). Listed on the LSE, …

“Groundless persecution” of social media users raises growing protests in Russia Read More

Supreme Court rejects Telegram’s appeal over FSB’s demands to access users messages

August 10, 2018

The Russian Supreme Court has upheld demands from the Federal Security Service (FSB) that Telegram provide encryption keys to access the content of user messages, the Interfax news agency reported this morning. Confirmed previous legal decisions, the Supreme Court, in particular, has supported an FSB argument which establishes a distinction between receiving the means to decipher encoded content, and …

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From illegitimate data-sharing to tracking “interest in treason:” Facebook’s handling of private data raises concerns in Russia

August 8, 2018

Roskomnadzor, the Russian telecom and Internet regulator, has requested Facebook to provide explanations about its past data-sharing partnerships with at least 60 mobile device makers, including Apple, BlackBerry, Microsoft and Samsung. As reported last week by the business daily Kommersant, Roskomnadzor’s move followed a request from the Association of Professional Social Media and Messengers Users (APPSIM in Russian) …

From illegitimate data-sharing to tracking “interest in treason:” Facebook’s handling of private data raises concerns in Russia Read More

US senator worries that Mail.ru might be the next ‘Cambridge Analytica scandal’

July 12, 2018

Until 2015, several applications developed for Facebook by third-party companies had access to personal information shared by users and their friends. The apps could see names, genders, birth dates, places of birth, photos, and “liked” posts and pages. One of the businesses that collaborated with Facebook like this was the Russian company Mail.ru [part of …

US senator worries that Mail.ru might be the next ‘Cambridge Analytica scandal’ Read More

Internet regulator Roskomnadzor challenged in courts for blocking websites in controversial procedures

May 31, 2018

The Russian news site Znak.com has won a lawsuit against Roskomnadzor, the Internet and telecom regulator which illustrated itself recently by its failed attempts to block access to Telegram. As reported by Meduza.io, Roskomnadzor accused Znak.com of publishing a video that contained obscene language. Znak.com produced phonoscopic evidence establishing the absence of any foul words in the video, convincing a …

Internet regulator Roskomnadzor challenged in courts for blocking websites in controversial procedures Read More

Russian court orders to block site about AIDS for “denial of family values”

May 7, 2018

In a country where the AIDS epidemics is still spreading at an alarming pace — with 1.16 million infections officially reported by mid-2017, and more than 100,000 reported new cases each year — the Russian authorities have decided to ban a website, Parni+ (‘Guys+’), that provides the gay community with medical and social information about the disease. …

Russian court orders to block site about AIDS for “denial of family values” Read More

Russia’s crackdown on Telegram disrupts Google services across the country

April 23, 2018

On April 23, Russian Internet users reported mass disruptions to almost all services offered by Google — from the main search engine to the company’s reCAPTCHA (which distinguishes human users from bots). The outages started after Russia’s federal censor added another 118 Google IP addresses to the country’s Internet blacklist over the weekend. After a wave …

Russia’s crackdown on Telegram disrupts Google services across the country Read More

Why Russia is banning Telegram: FSB concerned by cryptocurrency project, not message encryption

April 20, 2018

The official reason for banning Telegram in Russia – its refusal to let the secret service decipher user messages, as required by Russian law, to “prevent terrorism” – might not be the real one. Revealed today by the Russian business daily RBC, an informal note written by an employee of the Federal Security Service (FSB), …

Why Russia is banning Telegram: FSB concerned by cryptocurrency project, not message encryption Read More

Russia battles to block access to Telegram; Durov pledges millions of dollars to “support Internet freedoms”

April 19, 2018

Russia’s telecom and Internet regulator Roskomnadzor stated on Monday that it requested telecom operators to block access to Telegram, following a court decision from last week. In an interview with Russian business daily Vedomosti on Monday, Roskomnadzor head Alexander Zharov said the regulator had first blocked 9,000 Telegram IP addresses. However, blocking access to the service did not …

Russia battles to block access to Telegram; Durov pledges millions of dollars to “support Internet freedoms” Read More

Moscow court rules to block access to Telegram from Russia “immediately”

December 3, 2018

Today the Tagansky District Court in Moscow ruled to block “immediately” access to instant messenger Telegram from Russia, following its refusal to provide remote access to their systems to  the FSB. Adopted in 2016, a new Russian legislation (dubbed ‘Yarovaya law’ or ‘Big Brother law’) requires messenger apps and other “organizers of information distribution” to add additional …

Moscow court rules to block access to Telegram from Russia “immediately” Read More

Telegram is fighting for its life in Russia

March 22, 2018

The Russian authorities are formally moving ahead with the process by which they could block the use of Telegram on Russian soil. On March 20 Roskomnadzor, the Internet and telecom regulator, officially informed Telegram that it’s in noncompliance with the law, after Telegram refused to provide decrypted copies of all user correspondence to the Federal …

Telegram is fighting for its life in Russia Read More

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