The ECHR recognized the blocking of pages on VKontakte for calling for an action as a violation of freedom of speech and assembly

The European Court of Human Rights recognized the pre-trial blocking of the personal page on VKontakte of activist Grigory Kablis, who published a recording with an invitation to a national gathering in 2015, as a violation of freedom of speech and assembly. The decision is published on the website of the court.

The court ordered Russia to pay the activist 15,000 euros in compensation for moral and material damage for violating his rights to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and effective defense (Articles 10, 11 and 13 ECHR).

In September 2015, the Syktyvkar authorities denied Kablis approval for a picket dedicated to the detention of Komi Governor Vyacheslav Gaiser and his deputy Alexei Chernov. After that, the activist created the O_Glave_Komi group on VKontakte, where he published an invitation to a public discussion of the situation and reposted it on his personal page. A few days later, both the group and Kablis's page were blocked at the request of the prosecutor's office, which considered the message a call for an uncoordinated rally. In addition, Roskomnadzor demanded that three entries with invitations to the event be removed from Kablis's blog on the website of the 7×7 publication.