IN A STAND AGAINST STATE CENSORSHIP, Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, has rejected a demand from Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (Roskomnadzor) to censor my December 3, 2016 blog post, “WordPress Yields to Putin.”
That post critiqued Automattic’s previous compliance with Roskomnadzor’s request to geo-block a doctored image of President Vladimir Putin dressed as Adolf Hitler.
The irony is clear: a blog post about censorship is now itself targeted for censorship.
In my 2016 post, I noted that Roskomnadzor’s complaint led to WordPress taking action against a German blog hosting the image, which Rozkomnadzor had claimed was “prohibited for public distribution in the Russian Federation.”
In the interests of full disclosure, here is that image again:
Now, Roskomnadzor has issued another demand to Automattic, insisting they disable access to my 2016 blog post. This appears to be another example of Russia’s ongoing efforts to control online discourse and restrict access to information deemed harmful or critical of its government, especially that concerning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Here’s Automattic’s November 26, 2024 email to me, informing me about the censorship demand:
Important legal notice regarding your WordPress.com site in Russia
Automattic Trust & Safety (Automattic)
Nov 26, 2024, 21:07 UTCHello,
A Russian authority — the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (ROSKOMNADZOR) — demanded that we disable the following content on your WordPress.com site:
https://shootingthemessenger.blog/2016/12/03/wordpress-yields-to-putin/
Typically, we would comply with orders such as this to keep WordPress.com accessible for everyone in Russia. However, we do not believe that this specific order has been submitted in good faith by the Russian government, and so we are not complying with their demands.
For your reference, we included a copy of the complaint below. No reply is necessary, but please reply if you have any questions.
Thank you.
And here’s the censorship demand that Rozkomnadzor sent to Automattic:
It is notice of making an entry into the “Unified register of domain names, Internet web-site page links and network addresses enabling to identify the Internet web-sites containing the information prohibited for public distribution in the Russian Federation” the Internet web-site page (s) link (s): https://shootingthemessenger.blog/2016/12/03/wordpress-yields-to-putin/ .
In case the hosting provider and (or) the Internet web-site owner fail to take these measures, the network address enabling to identify Internet web-sites containing the information prohibited for distribution in the Russian Federation will be decided to be entered into the Register and access will be limited.
The information about entering the domain names, Internet web-site page links and network addresses into the Register shall be available on a 24-hour basis at the following Internet address: http://eais.rkn.gov.ru/en/ .
Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecom, Information Technologies and Mass Communications (ROSKOMNADZOR).
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Per Roskomnadzor’s complaint, failure to comply will result in my blog being added to a register of prohibited sites, effectively blocking it within Russia. However, Automattic has chosen not to comply with this order, expressing skepticism about the good faith of Roskomnadzor’s request.
As noted in my previous post, Automattic had in 2016 changed its geo-blocking policy to comply with local censorship demands in order to maintain access for users in authoritarian countries. Automattic’s decision not to comply would therefore appear to diverge from its current geo-blocking policy.
Although I’ve covered Russian censorship and propaganda on this blog and elsewhere, including BuzzFeed News, Foreign Policy, and The Daily Beast, this is the first time I’ve been the target of a Russian censorship demand. It’s unclear if the demand arose from an external complaint or from within Rozkomnadzor or another Russian government department.
Vlad, if you’re out there, feel free to leave a comment below—I promise I won’t censor you.
Shooting the Messenger 
One response to “WordPress Rejects Inception-esque Russian Government Demand to Censor My Blog”
[…] WORDPRESS CENSORS PUTIN-HITLER MOCK PHOTO on request of Russian state media watchdog Roskomnadzor. UPDATE, November 26, 2024: Automattic has rejected a demand from Roskomnadzor to censor this post. […]