Attempt to block "The Family" is example of fight against undesired information

The story of the documentary “The Family” about Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, which has been blocked and then unblocked on YouTube, has shown that any user can initiate a ban on dissemination of information. Meanwhile, complaints about copyright infringement are often false and filed with the only purpose to block the dissemination of meaningful content; furthermore, dispute settlement mechanisms created in social networks have been actively used to impose political censorship. This opinion has been expressed by experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on May 25, the 26-minute documentary "The Family" produced by ‘Open Russia’ Foundation and dedicated to the Ramzan Kadyrov's place in the system of the Russian authorities, the cases of kidnappings and torture in Chechnya, and the organization of the activities of the local law enforcement agencies was posted on YouTube. The film presents the analytical comments on the policy of Ramzan Kadyrov and the situation in Chechnya given by Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former head of the "Yukos", political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky, Grigory Shvedov, the "Caucasian Knot" editor-in-chief, Igor Kalyapin, the head of the "Committee against Torture", journalists Stanislav Dmitrievsky, Kseniya Sobchak and Kseniya Sokolova, and politician Ilya Yashin. On June 3, it was announced that YouTube blocked "The Family" documentary after the complaint filed by Ilyas Synbulatov, the owner of LLC (Limited Liability Company) "T&K Production". In response, the "Open Russia" has disseminated the message that the decision on blocking has been challenged. In the evening of June 3, YouTube unblocked the film.

"The actions of YouTube are not always clear and transparent. Any user can address them and initiate a blocking," emphasized Artyom Kozlyuk, the project manager of "RosKomSvoboda", a member of the board of the Regional Public Centre of Internet Technologies (RPCIT).

"I've got a feeling that this is a new trend of attempts to block the dissemination of public information through the mechanisms of social networks created for settlement of disputes between users," believes Damir Gainutdinov, the co-founder of the Association of Internet Users, a lawyer of the organization "Agora".

"False denunciations often come on behalf of copyright holders, and those denunciations are aimed to block the content for reasons of political censorship," notes blogger Anton Nosik. And the blogger continues: "For example, they can write in response on any video posted by Navalny something like: 'Hello, I'm Kanye West. This video uses my music at its second minute. I want you to remove it,'." However, according to the blogger, the balance between the blockings on false denunciations and struggle for copyright protection has already been found. "The procedure has resettled by itself. If you are Navalny, then you will challenge a false denunciation in a couple of days," blogger Anton Nosik has said.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.