Not “In Contact”

On 24 March the administration of the popular Russian website “VKontakte.ru” (“In Contact”) blocked off access to 41 groups “propagating ethnic and racial hatred”.

The day before, the Moscow branch of the Yabloko Party asked the administration to block access since these groups were inciting inter-ethnic enmity and violating legislation and the rules of the site.

Some of the groups in the list were removed, some blocked and are being checked out by the administration personnel to see whether they are infringing the rules of the site, the Sova Centre reports.

Ivan Bolshakov from Yabloko explained that it is necessary to fight with those spreading xenophobia and aggressive nationalism through the Internet, but that it was better if this is achieved by civil society and not the State.

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