“Russia Forgot to Remove to Filter”: Rostelecom on Sites Erroneously Blocked for Armenia Internet Users

A discovery by Rostelecom internet customer Yervand Aghababyan — that some websites are unavailable in Armenia because the content on those sites violates the laws of the Russian Federation — has caused quite a buzz on social networking sites recently. 

Internet users in Armenia are concerned that the prover is not respecting Armenia's legislation and, in fact, is exercising censorship, based on the laws of a second country. 

According to Aghababyan, www.spigotmc.org, for example, was inaccessible through the Rostelecom internet connection, which, however, was accessible to users in Armenia accessing the internet through other providers. Aghababyan posted a screenshot of the message he received when he tried to access the site — which also was unavailable when asking through the VivaCell connection.

Epress.am contacted the Armenian branch of Rostelecom and was informed that there is no such problem and the company adheres to the laws of the Republic of Armenia.

"According to Russian law, some websites (mostly pedophiliac, terrorist, and such sites) are blocked by Russian operators for their users in the territory of the Russian Federation. 

"These sites are not blocked through the Russian Rostelecom service of internet access supplied by GNC-Alfa and other Armenian operators

"For the information of consumers, let us also say that there are sites that are physically located in the territory of the Russian Federation, contain prohibited content, and are blocked for internet users of all countries, regardless of gateway affiliation," reads the company's response. 

Epress.am again contacted the company, providing the website that was allegedly blocked in Armenia. Later, Rostelecom called and acknowledged that such an error, indeed, had occurred.

"It's just that some websites are closed in Russia, and our colleagues who give us the internet from Russia often forget to remove the filter for internet in Armenia. There have been other times when such mistakes have happened. In such cases, this time too, we called our Russian colleagues and the ban was lifted. You can now check and enter the website with our internet connection," said an employee of the company's public relations department, Siranush Gyurjinyan.