Russia unbans Reddit

A day after banning a Reddit page on growing illegal mushrooms, Russian censors have removed Reddit from their registry of banned websites. In a post on the social network VKontakte, Roskomnadzor, the Kremlin's media watchdog agency, thanked Internet users for "prompting" Reddit's administrators to get in touch with their office.

Russian officials also expressed the hope that Reddit administrators will respond more promptly to future requests to take down or block access to content they deem illegal.

On August 13, federal officials received on their “hot line” a message from the site's administrators saying Internet users in Russia no longer have access to the illegal content. Roskomnadzor has confirmed [Reddit's] full compliance, and accordingly removed the website from the registry of illegal online materials.

On August 10, Russian censors complained that they were unable to contact Reddit's administrators. Two days later, Roskomnadzor added the offending Reddit page to its blacklist. The Federal Drug Control Service ordered the page blocked after discovering what it says is content promoting the use of illegal drugs.

The offending content was a page titled, "Minimal and Reliable Methods for Growing Psilocybe [Mushrooms]." Because Reddit uses https protocol for secure communication, many Russian Internet providers (perhaps 30 percent, according to the government) would have blocked the website in its entirety.

Read more: How Russian Internet censorship works