Russian Appellate Court Called off the Decision to Block Tor Project's Website
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Roskomsvoboda Assists in Getting the Tor Project's Website Unblocked in Russia
The regional court's order to block torproject.org was overturned due to procedural irregularities, primarily the failure to summon the owner, Roskomsvoboda reported this week. Lawyers from a non-governmental group dedicated to protecting the rights of Russian internet users were involved in the case, which was remanded to the Saratov region's first instance court.
The Tor Project's website was prohibited in December 2017 by a Saratov District Court order dated December 18, 2017. Ekaterina Abashina of Roskomsvoboda's legal team attended the online session in the appellate court. Torproject.org should be unblocked now that the district court's decision has been overturned. The defense had two key arguments to dispute the initial decision, according to Abashina. First and foremost, the absence of a platform representative at the proceedings impacted the owner's rights and obligations. The transmission of information about VPN technology and anonymizers is not currently prohibited under Russian law.
No Written Complain By Prosecution
The prosecution did not respond to the lawyers' complaint in writing, instead opting for a verbal objection. The Russian media watchdog Roskomnadzor, which had blocked the website, responded in writing, arguing that the court had unlimited authority to declare any information illegal. Abashina is meticulous. According to the legal expert, Russian officials want to block access to the website since instructions on how to download the privacy-focused Tor browser were provided.
Ekaterina Abashina expects the new proceedings to start within a month and hopes that the court of first instance considers Roskomsvoboda's second point, that the dissemination of information about technologies like Tor is not prohibited in the Russian Federation, as well as attempts to summon the website's owner as required by law.