Is it possible to achieve the removal of false publications in Telegram channels?
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Judge of the Russian Dance Sports Championship Karina Kalinicheva filed a lawsuit against the media for bullying after the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall. She demands to refute the information that at the time of the shooting the children were allegedly not allowed out of the building. A number of public pages, citing eyewitnesses, spoke about the continuation of the competition during the terrorist attack and indirectly accused the organizers of the late evacuation. Lawyers assess the prospects of such a case positively, because in this case the primary source is known. But with anonymous publics it’s more difficult. But, as Kommersant FM found out, even if the owners of Telegram channels cannot be identified, it is possible to achieve the removal of false posts. How is protection against anonymous people built? And what is the judicial practice in such cases? Aelita Kurmukova found out.
The courts have taken over anonymous Telegram channels. They are now increasingly considering cases of false publications discrediting the honor, dignity and business reputation of both individuals and legal entities. And, as lawyers interviewed by Kommersant FM share, there is already a practice of removing such posts from anonymous public pages. There are more tools for this, noted Dmitry Gorbunov, partner of the law firm Rustam Kurmaev and Partners:
“Now the option of a statement to establish legally significant facts is used. The presence of such information is recorded by certification by a notary.
Next, the citizen seeks for the court to state that we cannot identify the author, but we ask to establish a legally significant fact that on such and such a Telegram channel, the unreliable dissemination of information discredits honor and dignity, and also to involve Roskomnadzor as a third party, so that it can then complied with the decision regarding blocking distribution on the Internet, if such a requirement was stated by the plaintiff.”
Through the court, you can achieve not only the removal of posts from anonymous accounts, but also from all sites that managed to repost them. Otherwise, their owners face a libel suit. But it will not be without difficulties, lawyers warn, because even Roskomnadzor does not have leverage over resources.
At the same time, there are still options to identify the owners of secret public sites, which often make money from selling compromising evidence, emphasized Fyodor Kravchenko, managing partner of the College of Media Lawyers: “If the Telegram channel is anonymous, then you have to look for these authors yourself.
Sometimes, for example, we buy advertising in such accounts, and after we receive payment details, we try to find out who owns this phone number or card number or current account.
Not in all cases it is possible to achieve the removal and punishment of those who spread lies on the Internet. There were cases when we were able to seize the trademark of those sites from which it was absolutely impossible to achieve removal, and under the threat of foreclosure on this property, their owners agreed to satisfy any demands.”
But only those who are willing to pay for lawyers go this far. After all, the costs of such cases can amount to millions of rubles, and the process sometimes lasts a year or two. In addition, moral compensation cannot be recovered from an anonymous person. But for business, this is one of the options to pay attention to the problem of false publications on the Internet, noted Maxim Ali, a partner at the Comply law firm:
“The administration of the site where information is posted is generally responsible for what is published there. She should respond to such requests in a good way.
Therefore, legally, both Roskomnadzor and the victim of defamation have the tools to demand that Telegram delete certain data. But, again, since this service is not in Russian jurisdiction, there are no guarantees that in 100% of cases it will respond to them.”
Meanwhile, Telegram announced a new era of anonymity at the end of 2023. Accounts can be registered even without a SIM card by purchasing blockchain-based numbers. So there will be noticeably more secret publics. Meanwhile, after the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall, the State Duma proposed developing a mechanism for automatically blocking Telegram channels. For now we are talking about public sites that recruit terrorists. In turn, the creator of the messenger, Pavel Durov, has already stated that users in Russia from April 2024 will be able to limit the circle of those who send them private messages.
Everything is clear with us – Telegram channel “Kommersant FM”.
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