Internet Freedom Index Continues to Decline

The Internet Protection Society has released its April report, showing that the Internet Freedom Index dropped by another 32 points, reaching 477. The study revealed that the decline in the index nearly doubled compared to March, when it fell by 18 points. The main event in April was the blocking of Telegram and the “carpet bombing” of IP subnets by Roskomnadzor, which affected many unrelated websites and services. However, even without Roskomnadzor’s actions, April was rich in internet-related events.

Key Events Affecting Internet Freedom in April

1. Roskomnadzor Demands Court-Ordered Blocking of Telegram
   As previously mentioned, this was one of the main events of April. The issue, affecting millions of users in Russia, was resolved in just 19 minutes. The lawsuit, demanding to restrict access to Telegram in Russia due to its refusal to provide the FSB with encryption keys, was filed in the Tagansky District Court of Moscow in early April. Roskomnadzor ignored Telegram’s explanations about the technical impossibility of handing over encryption keys and began the process of blocking the messenger in Russia.
   According to Roskomnadzor’s official statement: “Based on Article 15.4 of the Federal Law ‘On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection,’ Roskomnadzor filed a lawsuit in the Tagansky District Court of Moscow demanding to restrict access to Telegram Messenger Limited Liability Partnership’s information resources in Russia.”
   Artem Kozlyuk, head of RosKomSvoboda, called this the first precedent where Roskomnadzor demanded a court order to block a multi-million-user messenger: “It’s unclear why Roskomnadzor previously blocked other messengers like Zello, Line, BBM, and others under the same law without any court decision, but organized a court procedure for Telegram.”
2. Bailiffs Granted Power to Block Sites Defaming Honor and Dignity
   The State Duma passed a law in its third reading allowing bailiffs to request Roskomnadzor to block websites containing information that defames the honor, dignity, or business reputation of individuals or legal entities. The bill was introduced on April 2 and passed all three readings within a week. Previously, bailiffs could only fine site owners for refusing to remove such information. Experts warn that while the law may not be applied en masse, it could be used to target opposition media and bloggers whose publications affect certain individuals’ interests.
3. Putin Signs Law on Blocking Sites with Defamatory Information
   Some experts considered the President’s signing of this law and its passage by the Duma as a single event, but after debate, it was agreed these are separate steps. Igor Ivanov, head of the IT department at Belgorod State Technological University, commented: “A terrible law. The criteria for blocking are expanding and becoming more vague, as are the possibilities for extrajudicial blocking. Few remember that censorship in Runet began with the innocent desire to protect children from pornography. That opened Pandora’s box.”
4. Nurse in Krasnoyarsk Convicted for Images in a Private VK Album
   In Krasnoyarsk, the Soviet District Court gave nurse Oksana Pokhodun a two-year suspended sentence for several images in a private album on her VKontakte page. According to her lawyer from the Agora human rights group, she was found guilty under Article 282 (“Extremism”). The prosecutor had requested 1.5 years in a penal colony. The Internet Protection Society noted: “The judicial system can do anything, even without new laws. For example, for a private message to oneself. Almost all ‘repost convictions’ in Russia involve VKontakte. It’s clearly unsafe to use this network, but people continue to do so—a kind of Russian roulette.”
5. Roskomnadzor Blocks IP Addresses of Twitter, VKontakte, Yandex, and Facebook
   Roskomnadzor added IP addresses of Twitter, VKontakte, Facebook, Odnoklassniki, Yahoo, and five Yandex addresses to the blacklist. This was noticed by an IT consultant from the Anti-Corruption Foundation on his Telegram channel. Among the blocked addresses was one of VK.com’s main IPs, the public time server (ntp.ix.ru), and liveinternet.ru. This began with Roskomnadzor’s pursuit of Telegram and continues to this day, causing anxiety among users and service owners. The mass blocking of millions of IP addresses in a single day was dubbed “carpet bombing” of the internet.
   The Internet Protection Society commented: “This event amused the public during the ‘battle between Roskomnadzor and Telegram,’ but for the affected companies, it was no joke. It was clear from the start that technically incompetent officials would break something—and they did. They fixed it quickly, but the bad aftertaste remains.”
   Some experts, like Valery Lutoshkin, called it an “executional screw-up,” while others, like Anton Nesterov, noted that Roskomnadzor’s automation is poorly designed and no one will apologize or compensate for the losses.
6. Roskomnadzor Moves to Legalize Blocking Circumvention Tools
   Roskomnadzor published a new version of a regulatory act governing the fight against blocking circumvention, including VPNs and anonymizers. The new basis for blacklisting a site is a court decision on an administrative offense. Experts believe this is to legalize the blocking of millions of IP addresses in the fight against Telegram.
   The Internet Protection Society commented: “A logical move by Roskomnadzor, which has been discussed in the industry for half a year—what to do with resources that help bypass blocks? The answer: block them too. Block everything.”
   Vladimir Kharitonov, executive director of the Internet Publishers Association, said: “Roskomnadzor’s order is less about fighting circumvention and more about usurping judicial functions, again violating the Constitution.” Igor Ivanov added: “It’s bad, but I doubt the new tools will be effective.”
7. Proposal to Register Social Media Users by ID Address
   Andrey Svintsov, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma’s Information Policy Committee, suggested that since the proposal to register social media users by passport was rejected, another method should be found—registration by user ID address. He argued that social networks need regulation and that those using them for business or self-promotion would welcome protection. Experts from the Internet Protection Society called this attempt “just more parliamentary noise” and noted that it was unlikely to succeed.

April’s Protest for Runet Freedom

The Internet Protection Society decided to leave the late-April protest for Runet freedom and against the Telegram block outside the main index calculation for two reasons:

• The protest was clearly a reaction to the “carpet bombing” blockings.
• It took place at the very end of the month and was still fresh in respondents’ minds, potentially skewing results.

Experts were asked to comment on the situation, and their anonymous responses included:

• “They managed to get introverts out to the square, which is a success. It seemed like at least a third were introverts.”
• “It’s good that internet freedom is becoming a bigger issue.”
• “Slightly above zero. Good that there are active people, bad that there are so few. Of the speakers, only one (Phil Koulin) knew why he was there and what to say; the rest were either off-topic or nitpicking (Navalny being a prime example).”
• “2 out of 10. If the question was ‘how many people attended,’ that would be worth commenting on. But the fact of the protest itself is an event, so 2 points, not 0.”
• “This is actually the most important event, and it deserves +10 because the internet finally took to the streets.”
• “Good protest, didn’t lead to anything, but a plus for karma.”
• “The protest helped rein in an overreaching Roskomnadzor a bit.”
• “A good thing. It showed there’s little boundary between online and offline, and that civil society is ready for some cooperation.”