psychedelic mushrooms (Photo : pri.org)
Russia has banned Reddit, a news and social networking website, over threads (subreddits) on the online forum about the steps for growing psychedelic or "magic" mushrooms and marijuana. The internet watchdog's blacklist of banned websites could eventually include other United States-based sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Roskomnadzor is the country's communications watchdog. It warned the web service on August 10, Monday that it must remove the mushroom thread, to avoid being added to the nation's list of extremist sites, which Russian services must block.
That agency's previous threat to ban Reddit was for other drug-related discussions. The forum talk was about how to grow cannabis, according to BBC.
Roskomnadzor administers nearly all digital communications in Russia, enforcing its strict legislation. It stated that it has been unable to contact the San Francisco-based company.
Over 80 million people are online in Russia, and it is the most open method of self-expression in the country. However, that could change.
Next month new laws will take effect. They require all global Web services to store their Russian users' data on local servers, according to Christian Science Monitor.
Last year Russia also passed a law that restricted bloggers. Those with an audience of over 3,000 people must now register with the nation's authorities.
Reddit is among the most popular news websites in the world. So if it is banned in Russia, other U.S.-based sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, which have already received warnings about complying with the country's laws, could be next.
Because Reddit uses the "https" secure server protocol, most Russian servers will have to remove the entire platform instead of the psychedelic mushroom subreddit. Many Russian users of the social network are concerned about such a ban.
Roskomnadzor has banned over 10,000 websites. Although some promote illegal activity such as narcotics and terrorism, others spotlight political activists, non-mainstream religions, and even a data archival tool.
Reddit has recently announced that it will prohibit racist and anti-Semitic posts, and ban several infamous subreddits. This is major shift as the company has a history of arguing that all controversial and offensive content is protected by free speech laws.
