Roskomnadzor strikes Instagram and Youtube

By the suit of Oleg Deripaska in Russia, Instagram and YouTube can be blocked.
12.02.2018
Vedomosti
 Because of the security measures against Oleg Deripaska's suit against Anastasia Vashakevich (Nastya Rybke) and Alexandra Kirillov (Alex Leslie), Instagram and YouTube can be blocked in Russia. Ust-Labinsky District Court of the Krasnodar Krai adopted a decision to include 14 posts in the Instagram and 7 videos on YouTube in the list of sites with prohibited information, according to the Roskomnadzor registry. The determination was made on February 9, Instagram and YouTube have three working days to delete the information. Since not all providers have the technical ability to block individual Internet pages, some users of RuNet can remain without access to Instagram and YouTube.

Two of the 14 controversial posts in Instagram and all seven videos on YouTube have not been removed by 12.00 on Monday, February 12, Vedomosti became convinced.

Representative Roskomnadzor (maintains a register of sites with prohibited information and is responsible for their blocking) specified that the services have time until Wednesday evening, February 14. Before Roskomnadzor cautiously approached the blocking of mass services such as YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Sometimes the agency sought for months to voluntarily remove contentious pages.

The Facebook representative (who controls Instagram) was unable to comment on the situation promptly. A Google representative (running YouTube) declined to comment.

 
Deripaska filed a lawsuit against Vashkevich and Kirillov on February 9 in the Ust-Labinsky District Court of the Krasnodar Territory. According to the representative of the businessman, the plaintiffs violated the privacy of Deripaska.

The businessman sued Aleksey Navalny's policy after the investigation. The politician based on the posts of Rybka and her book said that Deripaska and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Prikhodko allegedly rested on a yacht of a businessman in Norway. According to the Anti-Corruption Fund, there were several models with them, including Vashkevich. On the yacht, the businessman allegedly discussed with Prikhodko the relations between Russia and the United States.

Photos from Deripaska and Prikhodko Vashakevich posted on Instagram back in October 2017. Then came her YouTube videos about relations with Deripaska.

After filing a lawsuit, Deripaska secured interim measures against Navalny, Instagram, YouTube, as well as some media outlets that hosted contentious photos and videos. Such interim measures on the suit about privacy were made in Russia for the first time, said the representative of Roskomnadzor. Usually sites can be blocked even before the court's decision on the merits in case of copyright infringement or if the media has placed calls for mass riots.

After the claim of Deripaska Vashakevich removed from her Instagram all photos from Deripaska, except one. Also, after the investigation was released, on the afternoon of February 9 she published a video in Instagram, where she told new details about the rest with a businessman and an official. The links to these two posts, as well as links to four of its videos about Deripaska on YouTube, are included in the register of Roskomnadzor and were not deleted by the middle of Monday, February 12.

Navalny also did not remove the investigation either from his own site or from his channel on YouTube. The representatives of Navalny said they would challenge the court's decision.