Russia tries to block Wikipedia but fails. Internet service providers in Russia were ordered Aug. 24 to block access to the entirety of the Russian-language version of Wikipedia.

Roskomnadzor, the Russian federal body that oversees media, had objected to an article that detailed how to prepare Charas, a form of hashish, and order access blocked.

The online encyclopedia has been unable to fully comply because HTTPs, which encrypts traffic between websites and users, prevented Russian ISPs from blocking only a specific page.

Authorities – pointing to a court order in June making it illegal to publish the article as it offered instructions on how to manufacture drugs – ordered the entirety of the site blocked.

Roskomnadzor withdrew the order the next day after Wiki edited the page. The edits made the page lawful under Roskomnadzor standards.

Hundreds of websites have been blocked since late 2013 when the Putin administration passed legislation allowing the prosecutor-general to shutter websites without court orders.

Source: SCMagazine