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Russia Unblocks Reddit After Dustup over Shroom Post

On Wednesday afternoon, Russia added reddit to its registry of blocked sites. And as of early Thursday morning, reddit has been removed from the blocked sites list. After warning that it was consideri...
Russia Unblocks Reddit After Dustup over Shroom Post
Written by Josh Wolford
  • On Wednesday afternoon, Russia added reddit to its registry of blocked sites.

    And as of early Thursday morning, reddit has been removed from the blocked sites list.

    After warning that it was considering it, Roskomnadzor, Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, sent out the order to block reddit on August 12th. The government was upset over a post about the “cultivation of narcotic plants” – more specifically mushrooms. Officials said they had been trying to get in touch with reddit about removing the offending thread – but didn’t hear back. So they blocked reddit.

    Apparently, reddit complied with the request to block the “offending” post and Russia authorities have unblocked the site. Unless you’re in Russia, you can check out the specific post here. It’s two years old.

    Here’s what Roskomnadzor had to say on Russian social network VKontakte:

    We thank all who by their activity on the Web has prompted administrators to listen to reddit Roskomnadzor. Aug. 13 on the administration of the resource on the “hot line” of the Federal Service received a letter, which reported on the termination of access to the territory of Russia to the forbidden information. The requirement Roskomnadzor validated inspection. In connection with this page removed from the Register of illegal information. Given that this illegal article two years ago to notify Roskomnadzor has removed one of the pages on reddit, and then appeared on the other hand, we expect that the administration of resources will continue to listen to the demands of regulatory authorities Russia in the interests of large Russian audience.

    According to redditors on the r/russia subreddit, reddit it fully accessible in Russia – except for the page in question.

    The user responsible for the mushroom-tutorial recently posted in reddit’s popular r/TIFU (Today I Fucked Up) subreddit, saying TIFU by getting Reddit banned in Russia.

    “In Russia, there is a law which allow Roskomnadzor, Russian censorship agency, to block any website without court rulling. Two years ago I tested how RKN react to abuse on popular websites/crazy abuses. On of that websites was Reddit,” they say.

    “One thing I learned is that RKN doesn’t want to block popular websites. They respond me that this content is illegal and they blocked it, but they weren’t. It was on 05/21/2013. On 10st Aug 2015 they posted a call to help them contact Reddit administration to official VK page. Funny thing, but they called Psilocybe a plant. Several hours ago they reported that Reddit is blocked in Russia. Seems like things changed.”

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