The Prosecutor General's Office demanded blocking the websites of undesirable organizations

The website of the Russian movement "Open Russia" was also blocked.

On December 11, 2017, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, Roskomnadzor blocked the website of the Open Russia movement. On December 12, the Prosecutor General's Office published a press release in which it said that on December 11 " it sent requests to Roskomnadzor to restrict access to Internet sites that distribute information materials of foreign non-governmental organizations whose activities are recognized as undesirable on the territory of Russia", that is, to the sites of 11 organizations .

Currently, the list of undesirable organizations on the website of the Ministry of Justice includes the National Endowment for Democracy, the Open Society Institute Assistance Foundation (OSI Assistance Foundation), the Open Society Foundation (Open Society Foundation), the American-Russian Foundation for Economic and legal development (US Russia Foundation for Economic Advancement and the Rule of Law), National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, Media Development Investment Fund, International Republican Institute Corporation, Open Russia Civic Movement, Open Russia (Public network movement "Open Russia") (Great Britain), OR (Otkrytaya Rossia) ("Open Russia") (Great Britain), Institute of Modern Russia, Inc ("Institute of Modern Russia") (USA), The Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation (Black Sea Fund for Regional Cooperation, Romania). The websites of these organizations are now subject to blocking, now we are talking about 21 resources.

Recall that in April, when the British organizations of Open Russia were included in the list of undesirables, representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office pointed out that the Open Russia movement, registered in Russia (which owns the blocked website), does not belong to undesirables. It is not known what caused the blocking of the site under Lugovoy's law, the scope of which was recently expanded - the posting of materials by undesirable organizations or information about access to them, reports of unsanctioned actions, calls for riots or extremist activity - is unknown.

On December 13, Twitter received a letter from Roskomnadzor demanding to block the Open Russia account within 24 hours under the threat of blocking the entire social network. The social network "Odnoklassniki" blocked the organization's account on December 12 "for violating the rules."

On December 14, it became known that a similar letter demanding the removal of the Open Russia channel was received by YouTube video hosting.

As a reminder, we consider extrajudicial blocking of online materials unacceptable, since it leads to arbitrariness and abuse by law enforcement agencies and an attack on freedom of speech.

Sources

• The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation sent requests to Roskomnadzor to restrict access to sites with materials from foreign non-governmental organizations whose activities are recognized as undesirable // Website of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation. 2017. December 12.
• The Prosecutor General's Office asks to restrict access to 11 sites of "undesirable organizations" // RAPSI. 2017. December 12.
• The Prosecutor General's Office explained the blocking of "Open Russia", refuting their own statements // Moscow's comsomolets. 2017. December 12.
• Dmitry Serkov. The Prosecutor General's Office demanded to block 21 websites of foreign NGOs // RBC. 2017. December 12.
• Roskomnadzor threatened to block Twitter if it does not close access to the Open Russia account // TJournal. 2017. December 13.
• Roskomnadzor threatened to block YouTube because of the Open Russia account // Interfax. 2017. December 14.