Russia will be blocking more online ‘defamation’ soon

The State Duma has passed a third and final reading of legislation that will allow the government to block access to websites and online content that contain information deemed by a court to be defamatory. Currently, courts can only fine people periodically for disobeying orders to delete defamatory content

For example, since May 2017, when a judge ruled that his investigative report into Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev defames billionaire Alisher Usmanov, Alexey Navalny has simply been incurring occasional fines for refusing to take down the report. The court ordered Navalny to delete the segments of his report that refer to Usmanov, but he has refused, and the report is still available online.

What will be different under this law?

Under the new legislation, Russia’s Bailiff Service would be empowered to ask the federal censor, Roskomnadzor, to block Navalny’s blog and YouTube for failing to remove the claims about Usmanov.