Russia pioneered letting ordinary citizens block sites via blacklists

Evidence

Russia has been the innovator in this regard. In 2009, Russian law held that website owners are responsible for what users post in the comments on their site. In 2012, Russia developed a “blacklist” of sites that include “forbidden information”—on, for example, illicit drugs, porn, and suicide—and required Russian ISPs to block these sites. ISPs were forced to respond to requests not only from the court or state regulatory authorities but also from regular citizens, including the Media Guard youth group, which was targeting gay teen forums and Ukrainian political organizations. — Tarleton Gillespie, Custodians of the Internet, 132

Categorization

• SHARE: For someone interested in internet governance: the Media Guard youth-group angle of citizen-sourced blocking is a striking Russian innovation.