Russia has worsened the situation with Internet freedom

Human rights activists say that the number of cases of restrictions of Internet freedom in Russia increased 8 times.

Human rights group AGORA has recorded nearly eight-fold increase in the cases of restrictions of Internet freedom in Russia in 2016 in comparison with 2015.

In 2016, AGORA recorded 116103 of this fact. In 2015 it was recorded a little over 15 thousand cases of restricting the freedom of the Internet.

In particular, according to the organization, more than ten times – from 5073 to 53004 – increased number of cases of administrative pressure.

AGORA counted 35019 cases of restriction of access to information on the Internet compared to 1721 of this opportunity in 2015.

The number of prosecutions associated with activity in the Internet has risen from 202 to 298.

More than three times – from 7300 to 24 thousand increase in the number of court decisions related to the ban on dissemination of information on the Internet.

The study notes that in 2016, “significantly worsened” the situation for Internet users in North Ossetia, Khakassia, Mari El, Chuvashia, Bryansk, Vladimir, Volgograd, Kostroma, Kurgan, Leningrad, Murmansk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Orenburg, Sverdlovsk, Tver, and Tyumen regions, Perm Krai. In these regions, according to AGORA, “or dramatically increased the total number of individual restrictions, or cases of violence or sentenced to actual imprisonment for an online activity.”

While in Russia in comparison with last year slightly increased the number of regions with “relative freedom” of the Internet. They became 20 in comparison with 2015.

The organization notes that in Russia in terms of “relative freedom of the Internet” only live to about 13.6 million people, 82 million people live in regions with “serious pressure on the Internet.”

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