Report "Blocking Internet sites as a threat to freedom of speech" by Alexey Semenov, CIS-EMO Political Analyst, at Human Dimension Implementation Meeting 2017 (11 September 2017, Warsaw).
The Ukrainian president, Petro Poroshenko, has banned the country’s most popular websites, search engines and social networks. A decree by Poroshenko posted on 7th of May 2017 expanded sanctions adopted over Russia.
Among the websites blocked are:
Among other things, the restrictions affected the services of ABBYY company (the publisher of electronic dictionaries) and companies dealing with Internet security, such as Kaspersky Lab and DrWeb.
The blocking of social networks, search engines, email services and news websites is contrary to the common understanding of freedom of expression and freedom of the media.
The blocking of Russian sites and social networks can be regarded as an attempt of the Ukrainian authorities to control public discourse in Ukraine.
Such kind of bans affects the right to receive information for millions of Ukrainians and interfering with their personal and professional lives. These actions of Ukrainian authorities have dealt a terrible blow to freedom of speech in the country. This violates the rights of citizens of Ukraine to obtain information on their choice.
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