VLADIMIR KHARITONOV v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT 3dl.am case, (BGH) I ZR 3/14). Consistent with international standards, the law should provide for the following procedural standards: (i) blocking should be ordered by a court or an independent adjudicatory body; (ii) ISPs and other interested parties should be given the opportunity to intervene in proceedings in which a blocking order is sought; (iii) users and victims of collateral blocking should have the right to challenge, after the fact, the blocking order; (iv) anyone attempting to access the blocked website should be able to see the legal basis and reasons for the blocking order and information about avenues of appeal. 31. The European Information Society Institute, a Slovakia-based non-profit organisation focusing on high-technology law, pointed out that Russia’s implementation of website blocking led to collateral website blocking on a massive scale and lacked adequate safeguards against abuse. As of 28 June 2017, 6,522,629 Internet resources had been blocked in Russia, of which 6,335,850 – or 97% – had been blocked collaterally, that is to say, without legal justification. At various times, due to collateral blocking, Russian users were not able to access widely-used Internet services such as Google, Wikipedia, Web Archive, Reddit, Amazon Web Services and Disney. In addition, the Russian blocking system had vulnerabilities that facilitated over-blocking and abuse, such as the possibility to change unilaterally the IP address of a blocked website to the IP address of any other website, rendering it immediately unavailable for Russian users. An approach to website blocking which was based on the principle of proportionality called for an assessment of the positive and negative effects of a blocking order in each particular case and the choice of the method of its implementation. If it was predictable that ISPs would choose the IP address blocking technique because of its lower cost, the State should bear a higher burden in order to create conditions for a human-rights compliant manner of blocking content. 32. RosKomSvoboda, a Russian non-governmental organisation supporting open self-regulatory networks and the rights of digital users, submitted that the legal framework for blocking online content, as it had existed at the material time, had led to unpredictable consequences and the untargeted blocking of websites. It had not provided an effective mechanism for challenging blocking orders because a bona fide website owner would discover the existence of such an order only after it had become effective. 2. The Court’s assessment 33. The Court reiterates that owing to its accessibility and capacity to store and communicate vast amounts of information, the Internet has now become one of the principal means by which individuals exercise their right to freedom of expression and information. The Internet provides essential tools for participation in activities and discussions concerning political issues and issues of general interest, it enhances the public’s access to news 10