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Russia adds to its federal list of extremist materials Google, Yandex, and the Internet Archive

Source: Meduza

Officials from Russia's Justice Ministry, implementing an order by a court in the Volgograd region, have added 12 new items to the federal government's list of extremist materials. One of the new additions is item number 2,975, which refers to an audio-lecture called "The Fundamentals of a Guerrilla Movement." 

The decision also applies to Internet resources that host copies of the audio-lecture. The court's ruling simply lists the following text: "Internet Archive, hghltd.yandex.net "Internet Bank," Internet Explorer, https//www.google.ru," and then a few direct URLs, including a link to an archived copy of the webpage hosting the audio-lecture on Yandex's cache. 

This list isn't entirely coherent. A link resembling a Yandex cache URL that begins "hghltd.yandex.net" leads nowhere; the phrase "Internet Bank" bears no clear connection to Yandex; "Internet Explorer" is a browser, not a website; and the Web address "google.ru" is simply the splash page for Google's Russian-localized version.

The Volgograd region's court decision is dated June 6, 2015. 

The extremist list's item number 2,980 includes the names of several mobile applications available on the Android operating system. The court decision's language says nothing about why these apps have been labeled extremist, but it does target several popular mobile tools: "Odnoklassniki_203-1.apk," "Clash of Clans," "whatsapp.apk," and "Kaspersky_antivirus."

Apparently, the fact that Google, Yandex, and the Internet Archive have all been added to Russia's federal list of extremist materials doesn't mean they're banned in Russia: it just indicates that materials determined to be extremist can be found on these websites.

There are 2,985 items on Russia's federal list of extremist materials, which is maintained by the Justice Ministry. The list is known for errors and typos, when it comes to logging Web addresses, and its sometimes curious descriptions of banned materials. In November 2012, for instance, a court in Tver declared the online anti-Islamic film "The Innocence of Muslims" to be extremist. On the federal list of extremist materials, however, the URL to the video on YouTube was written incorrectly.