Russian Government Threatening To Block Reddit Over Cannabis

An anonymous reader writes: The Russian Government is threatening to block the social linking site Reddit across its country if they do not comply with removing a thread dedicated to growing cannabis. According to a post on VK.com, Roskomnadzor the Russian FCC, has asked Reddit administrator to read their emails and their social media posts stating that they want /r/trees brought down which had posted an article about growing narcotic plants. Recently, Reddit changed its rules to allow illegal discussions on its site but they say that they would continue to block things such as copyrighted material.

Comments

It's already BEEN blocked.

[Anonymous Coward]

https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/comments/3grpdf/tifu_by_getting_reddit_banned_in_russia/

Re:It's already BEEN blocked.

[Vokkyt]

No it isn't. I'm in St. Petersburg right now and can access it just fine.

Going to the following link will result in an error 403, but you can browse anywhere else just fine, HTTPS and all. This should not be marked insightful.

Re:It's already BEEN blocked.

[barc0001]

It isn't something a lot of Reddit users and probably admins disagree with so that is probably part of it. More importantly it's illegal in Russia and most of the world, but it is LEGAL in 4 (and counting) US states. So does Reddit start banning things that are illegal only in some places? What happens when Saudi Arabia's government objects to threads being posted with pictures showing women not appropriately dressed for Saudi Arabian standards? Or the subreddits for beer and craft brewing, etc I am sure are all highly illegal in several Muslim countries, gotta ban those too right?

Phew lucky there is no thread on

[Anonymous Coward]

distilling Vodka. Written by homosexuals ... who dislike Assad.

"allow illegal discussions on its site"

[YoungManKlaus]

Discussing cannabis growth is not illegal. Actually growing cannabis is.

Re:"allow illegal discussions on its site"

[aevan]

This is Russia. This is Russian Government. I'd wager illegal is whatever they decide it is.

Re:"allow illegal discussions on its site"

[Anonymous Coward]

in some jurisdictions.

An in some jurisdictions possession/sale is illegal.

In most parts of the world there are landrace species of cannabis that just grows wild, as nature intended.

Re:"allow illegal discussions on its site"

[umghhh]

You could get charged for conspiracy to grow and sell. You could read how that worked in case of charges of conspiracy to produce pr0n that mr. Zappa was once a victim. You do not have to do the actual thing. Sometimes expressed wish can do. Even if get away with it - you may incur significant losses in the mean time unless you are Frank Zappa.

Re:"allow illegal discussions on its site"

[arth1]

This is Russia. This is Russian Government. I'd wager illegal is whatever they decide it is.

Logically, it's not much different from the US government's Feinstein Amendment banning posting recipes for how to make explosives.
In either case, it's suppressing knowledge instead of the illegal actions themselves.

Re:"allow illegal discussions on its site"

[kilfarsnar]

Growing cannabis in the US is still illegal at fed level. Just because a minority of deadsville states have legalized purchasing it, primarily to stop filling their prisons and ruining people lives for a relatively benign activity, doesn't mean we don't face jail time if caught with it across most of the country affecting the vast majority of the population.

FTFY

approved discussion topics

[Black Parrot]

The Central Committee has, however, approved and recommended the following:

• How to get elected with fire bombs and terror scares.
• How to co-govern with former-KGB and organized crime.
• How to take territory back from former provinces.
• How to shoot down airliners.
• How to hate on Company of Heroes 2.

Re:approved discussion topics

[KiloByte]

How to get elected with fire bombs and terror scares.

Actually, discussing how the FSB staged bombings to boost the Dear Leader's ratings gets you polonium tea.

The person claiming to be responsible...

[tgv]

Has posted a Today I Fucked Up about it: https://www.reddit.com/r/tifu/...

Not cannabis

[atomlib]

It's not cannabis. FSKN (Federal Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation) didn't like this post which is about shrooms https://www.reddit.com/r/rudru... At the moment it's blocked in Russia on Reddit side as far as I can see. I suspect Reddit may get unblocked very soon because of that.

Re:So... just to to make sure:

[Zero__Kelvin]

"Last time i checked a country has the right to protect its youth from drugs..."

I don't know where, or when you checked, but you better re-check. You are completely confused if you think that. There is this twisted and pervasive idea that if 51% of the population votes that my kid should have to do or refrain from doing something that I should have to comply. You can "protect" your kids from drugs, but don't lie to yourself and think you have a say regarding mine. I'll handle the raising of my own children, thank you very much.

No body actually read about it?

[ouachiski]

The post in question had nothing to do with cannabis. It was about indoor growing of Magic Mushrooms.

Re:Always call their bluff

[Karmashock]

Don't kid yourself, there is a lot of filtering.

We don't talk about it but... yeah. We filter everything. Does every organization do that? Not every organization is competent.