Russian telecommunications and mass media watchdog Roskomnadzor has restored access to the Tor Project website, implementing a delayed court ruling. The site was blacklisted last year but the measure was successfully challenged by lawyers.
Roskomnadzor removes the Tor Project site from the blacklist of prohibited Internet pages
Russia’s Federal Service for Communications, Information Technology and Media Monitoring, also known as Roskomnadzor or RKN, has removed the Tor Project’s main site from its register of restricted Internet sources for the dissemination of information. prohibited. The cancellation follows a court decision and is accompanied by a two-month period.
The government agency took steps to restrict access to the website to Russian internet users in December last year. The measure was imposed to implement a Saratov District Court ruling from late 2017.
Legal experts from Roskomsvoboda, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to protecting digital rights in Russia, challenged the regional court’s decision, citing procedural violations, including failure to summon the owner. In May, an appeal court reversed the jugement.
“Roskomnadzor, of course, indecently delayed unblocking the site, because the decision to block it was reversed on May 19, and since then there is no reason to find the Tor project in the registry,” commented Ekaterina Abashina, Roskomsvoboda’s lawyer. representing the relevant platform.
Quoted in a announcement on the NGO’s website, Abashina noted that Roskomsvoboda must explicitly notify the regulator of the undue delay, even though Roskomnadzor itself was involved in the whole process. The response came a month later, with the agency simply stating “we will be unblocking this site soon”, without specifying when.
The Roskomsvoboda expert also reminded that the appeal court returned the case to the trial court for a new trial, the first hearing of which was to take place this week. Reporting on these developments, crypto news outlet Forklog noted that in mid-July, the Tor Project team introduced an updated version of the Tor Browser, designed to circumvent these restrictions.
During the last years, websites publish information or offer services related to cryptocurrencies as well as VPN providers were also targeted by the Russian telecommunications watchdog, the prosecutor’s office and the courts. However, operators of these platforms have often successfully challenged actions taken against them due to procedural violations or a lack of clear regulation.
What do you think of the case of the blocking of the website of the Tor project in Russia? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.
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