A court of appeals in Russia has overturned a ruling by a regional court which allowed the blocking of the Tor Project’s website in the country. The case was remanded to the original court for a second review due to violation during initial proceedings.
Roskomsvoboda Helps Cancel the Blocking of Tor Project’s Website in Russia
Procedural violations, mainly the failure to summon the owner, have led to the canceling of the regional court’s decision to block torproject.org, Roskomsvoboda announced this week. In the matter, the lawyers from the Russian non-governmental organisation that protects internet users’ rights in Russia were involved. The case was remanded to Saratov Region’s first instance court.
The Tor Project’s website was blocked in December last year on the basis of a decision of the Saratov District Court from Dec. 18, 2017. The hearing in the appellate court, held online, was attended by Ekaterina Abashina from Roskomsvoboda’s legal team. She stated that torproject.org must be accessible online since the decision of the district court was canceled.
Abashina said that two arguments were used by defense to contest the decision. To begin with, there was no representative from the platform present at hearings. This affected the rights of the owner and their obligations. Russian law currently does not prohibit dissemination of information regarding VPN technologies or anonymizers.
The prosecutor did not file a written response to the lawyers’ complaint but made only a verbal objection. Roskomnadzor, Russia’s media watchdog which had blocked the website, filed a written response claiming the court had unlimited powers to recognize any information as prohibited, Abashina detailed. Forklog received a statement from a legal expert stating that Russian authorities are trying to block access to the website due to published instructions about how to use the privacy-oriented Tor Browser.
Ekaterina Abashina expects the new proceedings to begin within a month and hopes that the court of first instance considers Roskomsvoboda’s second point, that the spread of information about technologies such as Tor is not banned in the Russian Federation, and also attempts to summon the affected website’s owner as required by law.
Russian authorities have targeted sites that provide services and information to the cryptocurrency community. Last June, a court in Russia’s Perm region decided to block a number of platforms describing how to exchange cryptocurrency for fiat cash. In December, Roskomnadzor took steps to restrict access to six VPN providers for helping Russians reach “banned” information. Some VPN providers have been able to challenge these restrictions in Russian courts.
What are your thoughts on the case with the blocking of the Tor Project’s website in Russia? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
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