ON NOVEMBER 11th Russian internet-users began to notice that Lurkmore, a sometimes funny, often vulgar website with a cult following, was no longer accessible. Lurkmore is a user-generated encyclopedia, a Russian-language Wikipedia focusing on obscure internet jokes and memes, or what its co-founder, Dmitry Homak, calls “the kind of stuff said by the characters on SouthPark”. Although no one had officially told Mr Homak anything, it soon became clear that the site had fallen into the Russian government’s “Single Register” of web content to be banned under a law passed by the Duma in June.
The law came into force on November 1st. It requires Roskomnadzor, the state’s media monitoring agency, to maintain a list of content to be banned in three categories: child pornography, instructions or propaganda for drug use, and material promoting suicide. The law also allows for a site or page to be blocked in accordance with any court order: a vague, potentially wide-ranging clause that has given rise to worries over censorship, given the frequent politicisation of the Russian judicial system.
The register itself is not public, but any user can check to see if a particular web page or site is blocked through a state-run portal. So far, more than 180 sites have been added to the list, the government says—though that number will surely grow, as various state agencies and local courts make their own additions, and internet users submit potentially offensive material. Lurkmore ended up on the list for its entry on “dudka,” which means “penny whistle,” or in its slang usage, a bong or some other pipe for smoking marijuana.
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