Wikipedia May Be Blocked in Russia Due to Articles on Circumventing Restrictions

According to Anton Gorelkin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Wikipedia may be blocked in Russia under the new law prohibiting the promotion of VPNs. Gorelkin shared this information on his Telegram channel.

As a reminder, starting March 1, 2024, Russia enacted a ban on the promotion of methods and tools for bypassing internet restrictions, including VPN services. Previously, Roskomnadzor (the Russian federal executive body responsible for overseeing the media) outlined the criteria that will be used to add resources to the registry in connection with this law.

For example, Roskomnadzor will block websites that provide information about methods and ways to use prohibited resources, as well as those advertising relevant software. Grounds for blocking may also include “the presence of information aimed at persuading users of the attractiveness of using such methods,” “the presence of information justifying the merits of using” circumvention methods, and “providing a positive assessment or approval of actions to use such methods.”

However, these restrictions will not apply to scientific, scientific-technical, or statistical information about ways to bypass restrictions.

Roskomnadzor reminds that, according to Russian law, tools for bypassing access restrictions to illegal content have been banned since February 2020. VPN services are considered such tools if they do not restrict access to prohibited resources when used.

Anton Gorelkin noted that, under the new law, Wikipedia could now be blocked in Russia. “Colleagues from ‘Runiversal’ are absolutely right to draw attention to the existence of an entire wiki article that not only describes ways to bypass restrictions but also strongly recommends users to use them, which fully meets the criteria recently outlined by Roskomnadzor.

Moreover, the regulator has a number of other complaints, many of which have already resulted in court decisions. There are legal grounds for blocking Wikipedia; the only thing left is to ensure this does not cause significant discomfort for users. In fact, all valuable information available on this resource has already been duplicated, brought in line with encyclopedic standards, and published on the Russian internet: on the ‘BRE’ portal, ‘Ruviki,’ and ‘Runiversal.’ The next step is to ensure that when a user clicks a Wikipedia article link, they are offered a safe version on one of the Russian alternatives.

The necessary technical solution for this is already being developed by ROCIT experts,” Gorelkin stated.