Russian Internet watchdog wants to block aid website for homosexual kids

Russia's federal Internet watchdog Roskomnadzor may block the website of Deti-404, a project which provides assistance to gay teenagers, if information that it considers forbidden is not deleted by the end of the day, said the website's administrator Elena Klimova on Tuesday, citing a letter from the agency.

The letter said Klimova was sent on 10 October. The watchdog, said Klimova, did not elaborate upon precisely what information was deemed inappropriate.

"Thus, the project will most likely be suspended in the near future on the territory of the Russian Federation. There will be no mirror website [made]. That is all the news. We are working on it," said Klimova.

The website, according to a court ruling, contains "information that explicitly promotes nontraditional sexual relations among children, namely homosexuality among boys, lesbianism among girls, and bisexual relationships among children." This, according to the court, was a violation of a law "on the protection of children from information harmful to their health and development."

In 2015, a court ruled to block the Deti-404 page on social network VKontakte. The management did, however, continue to work from a different address. Administrator Elena Klimova was fined 50,000 rubles (approximately $800) for the promotion of nontraditional sexual relations among minors. The Supreme Court upheld that decision.

The Deti-404 project was designed as a platform in which gay teenagers could share their problems.