Banned Russian media sites ‘still accessible' across EU, report finds

Euractiv

4 hours ago

Websites of banned Russian media outlets can still be easily accessed across the EU in the "overwhelming majority" of cases, experts said Tuesday, denouncing the bloc's "failure" to publish full lists of the websites involved.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, EU authorities banned Kremlin-controlled media from broadcasting in the bloc, including online, to counter "disinformation".But more than three years on, "sanctioned outlets are largely still active and accessible" across member states, said a report released by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a London-based think tank."Russian state media continues to maintain a strong online presence, posing a persistent challenge to Western democracies," the report said, with blocks by internet service providers "largely ineffective".
EU sanctions banned RT, previously known as Russia Today, and Sputnik media organisations as well as other state-controlled media accused of "information warfare".
The ISD report covered Germany, France, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, testing the top three internet service providers in each.
It identified 26 media under sanctions and tried to view 58 associated domains. In 76% of tests, providers failed to block access.
EU member states are responsible for ensuring blocks are applied by internet service providers.
But the ISD report criticised the European Commission for its "failure" to maintain a "definitive list of different domain iterations" – or website addresses – associated with each media outlet.
It said this left countries and internet service providers "without the guidance needed for effective and targeted implementation".
"The issue is when they sanction Russian state media, they mention the outlet that they are sanctioning – so Russia Today, Sputnik, etc – but what they don't list is what domain falls under this entity," said the report's author, Pablo Maristany de las Casas.
"If the European Commission were to list the different domains that are known to be linked to these entities, that would make it much easier for member states and the internet service providers in those member states to enforce these blocks," he said.
The report urged the EC to post a "continuously updated and publicly accessible list" and include it in sanctions packages and on its online sanctions dashboard.
A Commission spokesperson told AFP: "It is up to the relevant providers to block access to websites of outlets covered by the sanctions, including subdomains or newly created domains." Grey zone and mirrors Enforcement needs to be more agile because Russia has sought to circumvent sanctions, the report's author said.
"Some outlets, for example, RT, use so-called mirror domains" where they "simply copy the contents of the blocked site into a new URL – a new link – to circumvent those sanctions," he said.
The report found that Slovakia, whose Prime Minister Robert Fico is known for his pro-Russia positions, performed the worst on enforcement, with no blocks at all.
Slovakia's legal mandates to block pro-Russian websites expired in 2022 after lawmakers failed to extend them.
Poland was the second worst, while France and Germany were most effective overall.
Most sanctioned domains had little traction in the bloc, with under 1,000 monthly views, but Germany, with its large Russian diaspora, was the exception: three domains including RT had over 100,000 monthly visitors from there.
The report's author spotted another "loophole": numerous accounts on X posting links to banned media, mainly aimed at French and German speakers.
In May, such accounts posted almost 50 thousand links, almost all to RT-affiliated sites, the report found.
X largely blocks official media accounts, the author said, but "with these anonymous accounts that only repost this kind of content, there seems to be a grey zone and it seems not be withheld in the EU."