On Thursday afternoon, Russian providers began blocking access to the google.ru website. Several Internet operators provided information about the blocking to the RNS agency: TTK, MaryinoNet, Science and Communications, Maxima Telecom and Avax. According to company representatives, the access restriction is due to the decision of Roskomnadzor, which included one of the IP addresses belonging to Google in the register of prohibited resources.

At the same time, on the website of a universal service for checking access restrictions to sites, a message appeared that google.ru was included in the Unified Register of Blocked Sites in June 2016 by decision of the Federal Tax Service.

“We are aware that some users are having problems accessing the Google.ru website. There are no technical problems on Google's side. We are looking into the situation,” Google representative in Russia Svetlana Anurova told Novaya Gazeta.

Roskomnadzor press secretary Vadim Ampelonsky learned about the blocking of google.ru from journalists who contacted him for clarification. After some time, the head of the department, Alexander Zharov, told Vedomosti that “Google had a redirect from the bookmaker’s website,” so operators began to block it.

According to him, Google has already removed the redirect, the problem has been resolved. Later, Roskomnadzor removed the google.ru address from the registry.

According to the head of the Roskomsvoboda movement, Artem Kozlyuk, the situation is strange and continues to remain strange, despite the statement by the head of Roskomnadzor that it has been resolved.

The Federal Tax Service added www.google.ru to the register of prohibited sites. Recently, the tax service can make decisions to block Internet gambling resources: poker, casinos, sweepstakes, etc.

“And the Federal Tax Service immediately became an active player in the Internet blocking market, overtaking many departments at once. And he adds everything there indiscriminately, including all sorts of technical domains that are not directly related to such sites, but through which some engines can process them, and so on. Zharov explains not entirely transparently that there was some kind of redirect from the gambling site. What this means is not clear, here’s a question for him,” explains Kozlyuk.

This usually happens as follows: a government body (for example, the tax office) makes a decision, which is added to the closed part of the register. Then the RKN sends notifications to the hoster or site owner, giving him several days to eliminate the violations. If the information is not deleted, then RKN transfers this site to the open part of the registry, that is, to upload to telecom operators for blocking.

According to Kozlyuk, this is a routine procedure, but in some cases, some resources hang there for years. For example, some Wikipedia pages were added there back in 2012, and are still there today, also with some VKontakte links.

“This closed part is seen only by the RKN, and why he stores them there is unclear,” he notes.

In this case, Roskomnadzor acted as the executor of the decision, but as the executor it allowed that www.google.ru ended up in the register of prohibited sites.

“And so it turned out that the site from the closed part, due to the fault of some specific performer - someone pressed a button or the code went wrong - suddenly ended up in the open part. Perhaps other resources ended up there with him. Telecom operators essentially received instructions from Roskomnadzor to block google.ru, while RKN itself is not aware of this. This is simply his avoidance. Most likely, this happened by accident. We can just make such assumptions,” Kozlyuk added.

What happened before

At the beginning of June, due to a similar problem, users did not have access to some sites, including the online cinema Ivi and the publication Meduza. The Roskomnadzor blocking mechanism works using domain names (Domain Name System - DNS); the owner of a blocked site can link any IP addresses to his resource in the domain name database. Those providers that did not provide for this vulnerability were automatically blocked from accessing allowed sites.

Later, on June 9, there were interruptions in the work of some banks. In particular, Sberbank payment terminals did not work; clients of other banks complained of failures when paying with cards. The author of the Cybersecurity and Co. Telegram channel, Alexander Litreev, published a list of hundreds of IP addresses that could be used to block bank addresses.

After this, the regional departments of Roskomnadzor asked providers not to use the domain name database (DNS resolution) when blocking. The Telegram channel Cybersecurity and Co. published a letter from the department in the Ural Federal District. “until June 16, 2017, it is necessary to restrict access to Internet resources only to those IP addresses that are listed in the Registry (do not perform DNS resolution),” the document says.

“Tactically speaking, this is a mistake in the actions of Roskomnadzor. Strategically speaking, this is just another hole—of which there were many before—in the mental system of restricting access to information in general, and in Russia in particular. The regulatory agency and legislators keep talking about these problems, but no one listens to the IT industry. This system is full of holes and cannot continue to be patched with legal patches. These holes cannot be closed with anything, because there is no effectiveness in restrictions. And what is happening now will stick out even more over time and grow like a snowball,” Kozlyuk believes.

Access to the Russian-language version of Google was partially blocked because the site was included in the Roskomnadzor register of prohibited information. This happened due to an incorrect link that was not checked by the regulator, experts say

The google.ru page (the Russian-language version of the search engine) was included in the register of prohibited information. Users of social networks reported this on June 22 and an RBC correspondent was convinced of this through the Roskomnadzor service for checking prohibited sites.

According to the register, the body that initiated the blocking was the Federal Tax Service (FTS), and google.ru was blacklisted a year ago, on June 14, 2016. We were talking about two search engine pages: one had the status “access is not limited,” and the other had the status “access is limited.”

In this regard, a number of operators began to have problems loading the site. In particular, google.ru did not open for Telecom TZ and TTK operators. A TTC representative explained this by saying that the filtration systems operate in automatic mode, blocking domains included in the register of prohibited sites of Roskomnadzor.

A Google spokesperson said the company is aware that some users are having trouble accessing the site. “There are no technical problems on Google’s side. We are looking into the situation,” he said.

After a short time, the page with the “access restricted” status disappeared from the registry. Roskomnadzor representative Vadim Ampelonsky explained to RBC that the blocking was that one of the search engine pages redirected to a prohibited bookmaker’s website. The page of the Russian-language version of Google redirected to accessfonbet.com - the website of the foreign bookmaker Fonbet, adviser to the media relations department of the Federal Tax Service Evgenia Sukhovey. Since October 2015, amendments were made to Federal Law No. 244 “On Gambling” and Federal Law No. 138 “On Lotteries”, which, in particular, gave the Federal Tax Service the authority to send Roskomnadzor orders to block illegal sites. After Google complied with the law, its site was removed from the register of prohibited information, Ampelonsky noted.

Technical point

Experts interviewed by RBC point out that the incident occurred due to the fact that not a direct link to a prohibited resource was entered into the register, but a redirect leading to it from google.ru. A similar address appears, for example, if in Chrome browser on the search results page, right-click on the site and select the “copy link address” option from the drop-down menu, said Internet researcher and founder of the popular Lurkmore portal David Homak. The Federal Tax Service sent this link to Roskomnadzor, and thus it appeared in the register Domain name google.ru.

“The Federal Tax Service didn’t even click and look at what kind of site they were blocking. Well, and, accordingly, no one at Roskomnadzor checked what kind of URL they were sent, says Khomak. - No one checks what exactly they are trying to block, and no one is responsible for the result. And providers are forced to comply with any, even obviously absurd, requirements and are fined for refusing to comply with these requirements.”

However, being included in the registry does not mean that the site is automatically blocked. Some “highly sensitive resources” may be on the prohibited list but still be accessible. In particular, individual Wikipedia pages have been there since 2012, but the resource itself is accessible, says Artem Kozlyuk, head of the Roskomsvoboda project. The fact that Google was blocked only a year after being included in the register can be explained precisely by this, the expert suggests.

Prohibited sites of Roskomnadzor. The register says that this happened on June 14 last year. According to preliminary data, it was the address www.google.ru that was blocked, while other addresses of the service, including those in the domain zone.com, open normally.

Roskomnadzor has not yet made any comments on this matter (15:00 Moscow time).

Why did providers start blocking Russian Google domain right now, it’s unclear. It is possible that some kind of error occurred.

02.

03.

“It seems that www.google.ru was included in the Roskomnadzor register. On the register website (https://eais.rkn.gov.ru) the domain www.google.ru is indeed listed, and access is “limited to the page”<...>

www.google.ru is included in the register; a huge number of telecom operators do not open it. On this moment“MTS, Telecom TZ, Science and Communication, Maxima Telecom, TTK, Stalnet, Signal, MaryinoNet and about a dozen other providers are aware of problems.”

Telegram channel "Cybersecurity and Co."

The Moscow Internet provider Avax has blocked Google.ru, the company's clients told RNS and confirmed with technical support.

"Access to the page is prohibited because it is included in the unified register of prohibited sites containing information, the distribution of which is Russian Federation prohibited, or on the federal list of extremist materials on the website of the Ministry of Justice,” is indicated in the message for Avax clients when trying to open Google.

According to a technical support representative, the blocking is related to the decision of Roskomnadzor, which added one of the IP addresses belonging to Google to the register of prohibited resources.

“This is a temporary phenomenon, Roskomnadzor blocked, we ourselves cannot influence in any way, we need to wait. Roskomnadzor blocked some sites, they indicated the Google IP for this site, thus, as if in revenge for blocking their site. Because of this error in the Roskomnadzor system, it turns out , that some people do not get access to Google,” the provider’s technical support told RNS.

A company representative noted that such a situation has already developed with the Apple website. According to him, at the moment “not everyone, but many providers” are faced with the problem of access to Google<...>

Roskomnadzor representative Vadim Ampelonsky noted that he learned about the problem from journalists and will provide a comment later.

RNS

June 22, 15:32 The head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, explained the blocking of google.ru.

Google had a redirect from the bookmaker's website, so operators began to block it. Google has already removed the redirect, the problem was quickly resolved, Zharov explained.

It is unclear what pages and materials we are talking about. A Google representative promised to comment later.

"Vedomosti"

June 22, 16:53 Possible reason what happened:

The address www.google.ru has disappeared from the Roskomnadzor register.

It turned out to be unavailable for some users on Thursday afternoon, reported the Cybersecurity Telegram channel, which is run by political activist Alexander Litreev. He cites numerous user complaints. Roskomnadzor added it to the list of sites banned in Russia back in 2016, as follows from data from a universal service for checking restrictions on access to sites. It indicates that the address was included in the register at the request of the Federal Tax Service. For Vedomosti correspondents, the website google.ru opens.

There was a problem, it was not a false blocking, Roskomnadzor head Alexander Zharov confirmed to Vedomosti. Google had a redirect to the bookmaker’s website, so operators began to block it. Google has already removed the redirection, the problem was quickly resolved, Zharov explained.

To block the website of this company, the Federal Tax Service described several addresses (URL), including an address that looked like a redirect link from Google, said Vadim Ampelonsky, a representative of Roskomnadzor. Roskomnadzor had no right not to include this link in the register, but immediately warned Google. The company removed the redirect, and Google was removed from the registry. According to Ampelonsky, this link was present in the registry for less than an hour.

“We are aware that some users are having problems accessing the Google.ru website. There are no technical problems on Google's side. We are looking into the situation,” says a Google spokesperson.

Is Google a victim of the Federal Tax Service and Roskomnadzor?

The temporary blocking of Google could be the result of systematic actions by the Federal Tax Service, which does not check which sites are sent for blocking, and, at the same time, a certain malfunction in the Roskomnadzor registry, says Artem Kozlyuk, head of the Roskomsvoboda project. After all, the entire google.ru domain was included in the closed part of the registry back in June 2016, in which links are added not to block, but to warn site owners that there is some prohibited content on their resources. It is possible that a failure in the system could have caused a number of Internet resources to be blocked - and not only www.google.ru, Kozlyuk suggests. If you believe the version of Roskomnadzor, then someone could complain about the site to the Federal Tax Service and throw a link with a Google redirect, but the Federal Tax Service and Roskomnadzor still had to check it. As an example of such a “redirect” - Google service Translate, with which you can also access blocked sites, since the translator’s “engine” uses the technical resources of Google itself to simultaneously translate the entire site. And if you send such a link to block, then, again, all of Google will suffer.

The Federal Tax Service has the right to pre-trial demand that Roskomnadzor block sites since 2015. We are talking about sites that violate legislation in the field of gambling and lotteries. Last July, Izvestia, citing data from the Federal Tax Service, reported that at the request of this service, Roskomnadzor blocked more than 6,000 online casinos and bookmaker sites, as well as about 50 mobile applications such companies. The sites were blocked because the creators of the sites and applications did not receive a special state license as an organizer of gambling.

History of blocking

This is not the first scandal related to blocking. At the beginning of June, some of the resources that were not included in the Roskomnadzor blacklist were blocked, and this happened due to a vulnerability in the blocking system: it allows you to attach the IP address of a respectable resource to a prohibited address. Among those blocked were the Internet cinema Ivi, the hosting control panel in the user account of the hosting provider Selectel, and the Meduza website.

Russia began blocking sites with prohibited information in 2012, when the first law was passed banning access to resources with child porn, calls for suicide, and drug propaganda. Access to such sites is closed without a court decision; all of them are entered into the Roskomnadzor register, from which telecom operators take information about what needs to be blocked. Later, sites with extremist and generally any information prohibited by law began to be blocked. Then the blocking was extended to sites with pirated content, but in this case a court decision is required.

The Russian-language version of the Google website was temporarily included in the registry of prohibited sites compiled by Google. This has led to some providers blocking access to popular search engine, which social media users complained about.

Google.ru was blacklisted based on a decision of the Federal Tax Service () more than a year ago.

“We know that some users are having problems accessing the google.ru website. There are no technical problems on Google's side. We are looking into the situation,” a Google spokesperson said.

Google let down advertising

The blocking problem has now been resolved - about that » Interfax" said the head of Roskomnadzor Alexander. “The problem was, it was not a false blocking. Google had a redirect from the bookmaker's website, so operators began to block it. Google has already removed the redirect, the problem was quickly resolved,” said the head of the supervisory agency.

It turned out that the website google.ru was included in the register on the basis of Art. 15.1 (about information, information technology and on the protection of information) by decision of the Federal Tax Service dated June 14, 2016.

The Cybersecurity and Co. Telegram channel, run by IT specialist Alexander Litreev, reported that Google in Russia “managed” to block , Telecom TZ, Science and Communications, Maxima Telecom, TTK, Stalnet, Signal, MaryinoNet and about a dozen other providers. Litreev himself conducted investigation and found out why reason Google was included in the register due to gambling sites.

As the expert stated, the issue is not the found vulnerability of the system, but the incompetence of the employees who entered the site with prohibited information - instead of a direct link, the business address of the search engine’s advertising network was added to the list.

“Voila, RKN killed Google for a huge number of Russians,” writes Litreev.

“It’s just incompetence - people don’t understand anything about how they work advertising networks search engines like Yandex.Direct and Google AdWords", the analyst added.

Gazeta.Ru contacted the director (IRI) for project activities to find out whether Roskomnadzor, in principle, has grounds to block Google. The expert confirmed that the reason for adding a search engine to the registry could only be an error or misunderstanding.

“Despite various scandalous initiatives in the field of Internet regulation, Russia is confidently moving along the path of free movement and exchange of information, access to legal sources of its distribution, which is the Google search service. Any restrictions introduced in our country are minimal and are caused by ensuring national security: countering the spread of illegal content, terrorism and extremism. Blocking Google in the current situation would be barbaric,” said Gazeta.Ru’s interlocutor.

Google banned

Despite a fairly prompt solution to the problem, the news of Google being blocked instantly spread throughout social networks, causing a huge number of publications. Many noted that the phrase “Are you banned from Google” took on new colors.

In addition, users joked that Roskomnadzor could not remove Google from the register of prohibited sites, because now it could not “Google” how to do it.

Some also noted that Google's ban should make employees very happy.

In general, the blocking of Google.ru came as a complete surprise to everyone, since Roskomnadzor did not make any statements about the existence of violations. The situation is completely different with the Telegram messenger, which Zharov’s department has long been trying to add to the register of organizers of information dissemination, and therefore to obtain the necessary identifiers from it.

Telegram and its creator do not make contact with Roskomnadzor and do not respond to its requests, which led to the head of the department promising to personally demand the necessary data. Zharov added that he was “waiting and waiting for a response from the messenger,” but has not yet achieved any result.