14 DAY TRIAL // Last year, Russia got a brand new online censorship law designed to block things like child abuse, suicide guides, "extremist" material and so on. When the law was first enacted, the main criticism was that it would be abused.
Now, the very law was responsible for blocking VKontakte, the largest social network in Russia, in at least several regions of the country "by mistake."
Officials are blaming human error for the inclusion of one of the biggest sites in the country, with almost 50 million daily users, on a list that's supposed to be rigorously checked and to only contain the worst of the worst.
The site was later removed from the list and things have returned to normal. If this was indeed in error, it would still be a perfect example why laws that permit the government to block sites with absolutely no oversight are incredibly bad.
But VKontakte has been having some problems with the Putin administration in recent months.
The Russian FSB, the successor of the infamous KGB, tried to get the social network to shut down a group used by members of the opposition and activists to organize protests against the government.
VKontakte refused leading to tension between the Kremlin and the company. VKontakte's founder, Pavel Durov, has been having trouble with the authorities lately as well.
The Kremlin isn't too keen on the freedom allowed by the social network. The Russian government has already stamped out opposition press so the only dissent that can be heard is online.
An investment group with ties to the Kremlin recently bought a 48 percent stake in VKontakte. The assumption was that the deal was an attempt to get more control over the site.
Blocking sites as a "warning" isn't even new, as since the law was put into place, both Google and YouTube were blocked temporarily due to "technical errors."