How will the attack on YouTube end

A temporary shutdown of YouTube in Omsk was a signal for an attack on video hosting and other Russian regions. One after another, local providers began to receive letters from republican, regional, regional, city and district prosecutors. The text of the appeals is almost similar: the providers warn that on the web resource there is a video "Innocence of Muslims", "telling about the life of Muslims in an insulting form." The film, characterized in a letter as an extremist,, according to the supervisory authority, is "aimed at the formation of ideas about the inferiority of Islam as a religion and the professing part of the population."

Officially, the status of extremist material "Muslim innocence" has not yet received. The General Prosecutor's Office only applied to the court with such a lawsuit. This also explains the nature of the letters - so far this is not a ban, but only a warning in accordance with Article 6 of the Federal Law "On Combating Extremist Activities". The difference between these concepts Publicpost was explained by the lawyer of the group of companies "Screamers and partners" Evgeny Kolesnik. According to him, the warnings, which many providers consider as a recommendatory measure, are mandatory, administrative liability is provided for their failure to fulfill.

Kolesnik explained that the warnings are applicable when there are no grounds for bringing to criminal liability. For this, according to him, the decisions of other bodies, including courts, are not mandatory. "The warning is applied in the presence of sufficient and pre -confirmed information about the prepared unlawful actions containing signs of extremist activity. In case of failure to fulfill the warning, the responsible officials of the service providers will be brought to administrative responsibility in the form of a fine in the amount of from two to three thousand rubles," the lawyer explained.

PublicPost found out from regional providers whether they will follow the prosecutor's recommendations in a situation where there is no official ban yet.

The prosecutor's office of St. Petersburg has already reported that the largest local telecom operators blocked access to the film. This was announced by the press secretary of the prosecutor's office Marina Nikolaeva. In fact, the situation in St. Petersburg is not quite the case.

Arbital did not receive warnings and the issue of whether you will be blocked by YouTube if such a letter comes is sincerely surprised. “How do you imagine this? How do you can do it technically - close access to the film, not to the site?” The company representative was surprised. “I would very much like the prosecutor’s office to threaten sanctions, but to say directly:“ Close YouTube. ”Then there would be clarity. But in our state the official is invented by the law, and you should think about how to fulfill it. We will hardly block it. YouTube, it's just stupid, ”he concluded.

The Unetcom provider also did not receive warnings. “When we come, we will decide what to do with our admins,” the company said. In one, they are sure of sure: you will not turn off youtube.

The prosecutor’s office of the Belgorod region issued warnings to 34 providers, including LLC Komet, Vimpeltelecom, Gorptus, Reinfocom, Sharnet, etc. They did not receive letters in the “ comet ”, promising, if it will act on the situation.

The prosecutor's office of the Nizhny Novgorod region reported on the mass mailing of warnings, but they don’t know anything about this at Zeberatelecom : "There was no indications of anything yet."

On Friday, a letter to Roskomnadzor , which received the Volgograd Sprint-Set Provider, was dispersed on Friday afternoon. In this letter, the threat is already stated directly: if the provider does not obey the "requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation", then he is facing the suspension of the license. Following this, the media began to disseminate information that the Sprint Set blocked not only YouTube, but also VKontakte in the city. The provider himself, having learned about this, was excited. “You have already got me everything today!” Natalya Agarkova, President of the company almost screamed into the phone. “You take it, try to go to these sites yourself! We haven’t done anything. We received a letter, but did not block anything.” “I'm not crazy,” she added.

Kabardino-Balkarian provider " Yugratset " does not know anything about the ban on the film and is not aware of the warning of the prosecutor's office . Nevertheless, the company representative noted that some sites on which the film is posted are still blocking. He could not remember the names of sites, but he assured that this is definitely not YouTube and not other large video hosting.

In the Republic of Khakassia, where, as the prosecutor's office found out , 11 providers operate, and seriously reacted to warnings. “You know very well that we received all this paper from the prosecutor’s office. Go to the Nag.ru website there are discussing our colleagues and you will find out everything. Some of the providers even published our letters. We will somehow bend like managers. We don’t have another option,” the representative of Intelcom said sadly in his voice.

The Tomsk operator " Spacious Telecom " received paper from the prosecutor's office, but the video hosting has not yet blocked: "We do not know what to do until we have decided."

The representative of the Public Relations of the MTS Macro -Region South (Provider in Chechnya, Ingushetia, Kuban, etc.) Julia Feoktistova confirmed that warnings from the prosecutor’s office related to both the Central region of Russia and others. "This topic causes great interest, but, unfortunately, we cannot give any comments," she said.

Letters with warnings continue to diverge through the regions - they were delivered to Chechnya, Ingushetia, the Komi Republic, the Khabarovsk Territory, the Arctic, Kamchatka ... From day to day, the court must make their decision, and then the intractable operators will have to follow the order.

The head of the Ministry of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov, who had said a few days earlier that in early November, Russians could completely lose access to YouTube, today hastened to reassure the users of the network. “It will not be like that. It is pulled out of the context. No, of course,” he said , answering the question of the possibility of closing video hosting. He noted that if a court decision is made, then access to the video itself will be limited, but the resource itself will be available. How it will be technically possible, the minister did not explain.

The video "Innocence of Muslims" provoked mass riots in a number of Muslim countries. In Kyrgyzstan, the court recognized the film "Innocence of Muslims" extremist and prohibited its show and distribution. Video hosting is blocked by the authorities of Pakistan and Afghanistan. In India, Indonesia, Libya and Egypt, hosting works, but it is difficult to access the film itself.