The ECHR involved a third party in the case of mass blocking of websites in Russia

The European Court of Human Rights has admitted the European Institute of the Information Society as a third party in a complaint about mass blocking of websites in Russia, told RBC. Damir Gainutdinov, a lawyer for the international human rights group Agora,

Gainutdinov represents the interests of the director of the Association of Internet Publishers, Vladimir Kharitonov, whose website “News of Electronic Book Publishing” ( digital-books.ru ) was blocked in 2012 for three months due to the fact that it used the same IP address together with the site “Rastafarian Tales” "( rastamantales.ru ), on which Roskomnadzor discovered drug propaganda.

Kharitonov tried to appeal the actions of Roskomnadzor in the Constitutional Court with a demand to check the provisions of the law on the blacklist of sites.

“The current rules allow arbitrary blocking of access to legal information in the absence of any opportunity for conscientious site owners not only to object to such blocking, but even to find out about it before access to the site is closed by the telecom operator,” RBC quotes from his complaints.

In September 2013, the Moscow City Court declared the blocking legal. In September of the following year, the Constitutional Court refused to consider Kharitonov’s appeal, proposing to file a claim with the hosting provider.

In December 2013, he appealed to the ECHR. Kharitonov stressed that his right to freely express his opinion (Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights) and the right to an effective remedy (Article 13 of the Convention) had been violated. The complaint was accepted for consideration in May 2017.

On May 23, 2017, the European Institute of the Information Society sent a letter to the ECHR and asked to be admitted as a third party to Kharitonov’s complaint.

“We consider this matter extremely important from the point of view of the future of the entire information society. It is necessary for the ECtHR to have a full understanding of the situation before it makes a decision on this issue. Without a doubt, this case will set the standard when it comes to freedom of expression on the Internet,” RBC quotes the organization’s letter.

Gainutdinov said that this request was granted. According to him. So far, the Institute has participated in three hearings in the Strasbourg court, including in a case on the use of personal data in journalism.

According to lawyer Karina Moskalenko, a third party arises when the rights of an entire group of people are affected or when an organization has expert knowledge that can help the court. In this case, she acts as an amicus curiae - “friend of the court.” According to Moskalenko, this practice is encouraged by the ECHR because it helps to find the best legal approach.

In May 2017, in response to Kharitonov’s complaint, the ECHR sent questions to the Russian authorities that must be answered by September 15. In particular, the authorities should explain how precise the blocking rules described in the law are and how predictable their application is, whether Roskomnadzor and the courts are required to assess the side effects for sites that have the same IP address as the blocked ones, and whether the law actually provides for massive blocking sites.