This month, a controversial “Banned Sites” register came into effect in Russia. It comprises 200 or so websites at the moment. There was some talk of it affecting YouTube, but so far the biggest site that it has touched is an incredibly popular wiki, Lurkomore, that indexes memes, popular culture, and subcultures. Alexa currently places it at 2,889 in the world, but more significantly, 159th in Russia.
The site is operational again, working from a different IP address. Whether this arrangement will be tolerated is so far unclear, but it seems unlikely.
From Echo Moskvy:
Popular internet-encyclopedia “Lurkomore” added to list of banned sites
The administration of resources reports that the decision was taken by the federal service for drug control. The basis for this decision is as yet unknown. “Lurkomore” calls itself an encyclopedia of contemporary culture, folklore and subculture. In its articles, the resource sometimes uses obscene vocabulary.
Comments from Echo Moskvy:
fedya_52:
Maybe it’s not worth using this most “obscene” vocabulary. In Russian there are plenty of rude words that aren’t obscene.
hryun_morzhov: (responding to above)
Of course it’s not worth it. With a few rare exceptions. You can’t really ban some sort of “Dictionary of obscene language” for using that sort of language?
Oh! Or can you?
lvovjanin: (responding to above)
If someone writes “Putin – The Oaf King of Heaven”, then they’re not just using obscene language (the word “oaf”), they’re also offending the feelings of believers.
In fact, it’s an attack on free speech. I personally always liked the wit of this encyclopaedia.
Anyway, have they still not banned Aleshkovsky? His mother once suggested it to me: look how stylishly he talks! I opened it, and it was continuous swearing. But what style!
mitrjfavnov: (responding to above)
Oaf isn’t a swear word, it’s an old Romanian name.
rff:
This is the real reason that the federal service for drug control is worried: http://lurkmore.to/Putin’s_Plan
dajdaj:
They’ll soon ban everything except kremlin.ru
anatolr:
Obscene language has no relation to drugs and has no relation to federal services – it’s an encyclopaedia of memes, often rude, often funny, but that’s all!
lesovoz: (responding to above)
I agree! I’ve visited a couple of times – it’s not for me, but to shut it down? What’s dangerous about this site for the State and the morality of its population???
askv:
Don’t give a crap. Its time was up.
reanimator_:
“The basis for this decision is as yet unknown.”
Bureaucratic idiocy is the basis.
shevgen2 (Виктор Шавалеев):
And this is just the start!
hryundel:
You’ve committed sacrilege, pigs! There’s no excuse! Now who is going to tell me what sort of person I am – nerd, geek, or d**khead?
nebudbydlom:
What’s the problem? Let them move over onto German hosting through VPNs – let’s go!
fedya_52:
There’s no place for discussion. It seems that the sad end of “Lurkomore” has come … (((
sonyr:
It’s a shit site. This is good news in the morning.
bookmake:
All is perfectly fine, it’s all working, the journo-cunts are crowing ahead of time and not about facts, as per usual…
[Note: the site is accessible at the time of writing, but this is due to a work-around put in place by the Lurkomore sysadmins, this commenter is mistaken.]
What do you think? Censorship, pure and simple? Or is there a good reason behind it?
