Roskomnadzor named blocking criteria for advertising VPN services – Kommersant

Roskomnadzor (RKN) today, March 1, begins to block access to materials about ways and methods of bypassing blocking, including VPN services. The agency also named criteria for blocking sites and pages that disseminate information about methods of bypassing blocking.

As noted in the commentary cited by TASS, we are talking about the dissemination of “information about ways and methods of providing access to information resources and (or) networks to which access is limited” in Russia. The criteria in the order are: description of actions to gain access; information that encourages the use of methods to bypass blocking, “including by describing the benefits of their use, or information that endorses or justifies their use.” Another criterion is an offer to buy a tool that opens access to blocking.

The RKN clarified that VPN services are a means of bypassing blocking if their use does not restrict access to prohibited resources. VPN services connected to the FSIS, which contains a list of blocked resources, are not included in this list. The department noted that VPN services “can be used for criminal purposes, including the distribution of drugs, child pornography and extremism.”

If a page or website contains a description of at least one of these methods, they will be included in the Unified Register of Prohibited Information. The criteria do not apply “to scientific, scientific-technical and statistical information” about ways to bypass blocking. The RKN order was signed in November 2023 and came into force today. The document will be valid until September 1, 2029.

How the ban on popularizing services will work – read in the Kommersant publication “VPN’s advertising period has ended”.

Anastasia Larina