"It's easier to restrict Internet access"

This is how the director of one of the Tomsk Internet providers, Vladimir Vodolazhko, commented on the recommendations of Roskomnadzor. The agency asks to limit access to sites on which the scandalous film “The Innocence of Muslims” is posted.

“We are aware of the situation with the film “Innocence of Muslims,” so the appearance of the letter itself did not surprise us. We were surprised by its form. The film has not yet been recognized as extremist and there is a reference to this in the letter. However, there is a recommendation to treat it as extremist. The most difficult thing for us is restricting access to this film. You need to understand that this is the Internet and this film can be copied and posted on a variety of resources, in addition there may be links to this film,” said Vladimir Vodolazhko.

Tomsk providers do not understand what exactly they should close: access to sites where there are links or descriptions of the film, or to the film itself.

"Technically, this is a very difficult task. If we set out to limit our customers from this film, then we need to block all mentions of this film, all links to it and all locations of these files. This is a huge number of servers and Internet resources. This way we It will be easier to restrict citizens’ access to the Internet,” Vladimir Vodolazhko clarified.

Tomsk providers are now planning to write a letter to Roskomnadzor asking them to specify the requirements.

According to system administrator Sergei, the approach to blocking extremist materials on the Internet should be different.

"Resources located on the territory of Russia should not be blocked using the means of all providers - a very large number of organizations are involved in ineffective action. It would be more correct to determine where the resource is located. If it is located within the Russian Federation, you need to contact the provider on the basis of which this is all posted. And either punish or demand the confiscation of materials from one organization,” Sergei said.

Let us add that the day before the Tomsk Internet provider Neotelecom closed access to the Youtube website for its subscribers for 2.5 hours.

Note that if providers implement the recommendation of Roskomnadzor, then hundreds of different sites could be blocked overnight. For now, Roskomnadzor’s letter is of an advisory nature and providers themselves have the right to decide whether to block their access to sites or not. But if the film “The Innocence of Muslims” is found extremist in court, Roskomnadzor’s recommendations will turn into demands.