A Moscow court has banned the distribution in Russia of content hosted on the entertainment website “YaPlakal.” The ruling, issued by the Chertanovsky District Court of Moscow in late April, was flagged by Verstka, an independent Russian news outlet.
The case was brought by the Chertanovsky inter-district prosecutor’s office, which identified materials on “YaPlakal” — along with content on two joke websites, anekdotovstreet.com and anekdoto.net — that it said could be classified as degrading to human dignity and as promoting discrimination and the insulting of individuals on the basis of national and racial identity.
The court ordered all three websites added to the registry of banned sites. The ruling does not specify which content prompted the lawsuit.
“YaPlakal” is an entertainment website founded in 2004. In 2020, Roskomnadzor added it to the registry of information distribution organizers, requiring the site to store users’ correspondence and provide it to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) upon request.
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