MOSCOW – The google.ru website has been taken off the register of banned resources and the problem behind the blocking resolved, the head of the Federal Communications & IT Oversight Service (Roskomnadzor) Alexander Zharov said.
“Indeed, a redirect page to a betting firm which had been put on the register by a decision of the tax service came from google.com. Google has now complied with the decision, removed everything and the resource, accordingly, has been taken off the Unified register,” Zharov said.
“The problem was removed, google.com complied with the requirements of Russian legislation,” the Roskomnadzor chief said.
Roskomnadzor spokesman Vadim Ampelonsky confirmed this information for Interfax.
The website’s unexpected appearance in the list on Thursday on the basis of a decision by the Federal Tax Service (FTS) from over a year ago led to a number of operators blocking the website google.ru.
Roskomnadzor’s service to check access to websites reported that google.ru was included in the list on the basis of article.15.1 regulating information, information technology and information security by a decision of the Russia’s FTS from July 14, 2016. The FTS said that certain information on the internet was not in accordance with legal requirements by the government which regulate the activity of organizations on the internet, including gambling and lotteries. Those laws ban gambling on the internet, in particular. In accordance with this, the FTS has the authority to include information on gambling in the list of banned material.
The FTS told Interfax that its decision to ban information was related to the online bookmaker, accessfonbet.com. Any other blacklisting, including of mirror sites for banned websites, was Roskomdazor’s remit, it said.
