The number of prohibited websites in Belarus has been doubled

80 websites have been added to the list of restricted access, formed in Belarus.

It is still impossible to know the entire list.

As BelTa reports, the number of internet recourses in the list of restricted access has been doubled for the last nine months. At the present time it contains, supposedly, websites of extremist and pornographic contexts only. In fact, the list is dominated by the opposition websites, including Charter97.org.

Access to them is closed on a mandatory basis in state, educational, and cultural institutions. For a regular user such filtering can be carried out only at his own request.

The Belarusian internet providers offer services to restrict access on the basis of two lists. One is formed by the Inspectorate for Supervision of the Telecommunications, and another - by each internet provider on its own.

The list of restricted access is formed by the Inspectorate for Supervision of the Telecommunications on the basis of decisions of the heads of the State Control Committee, the Prosecutor General's Office, the Operational and Analytical Center at the President, and other republican institutions of state administration. The decisions are made by the heads of the authorized bodies within their competence.  

In January, 2012 a law “On making additions to the Code of Administrative Offences and to the Procedural-Executive Code of Administrative Offences” came into force in Belarus. To all other, these additions provide the responsibility of internet-providers for the violation of the requirements to limit user access to the information, forbidden by law.