VLADIMIR KHARITONOV v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT blocking an IP address, even though commonly used Internet tools, such as “reverse IP address lookup”, could have promptly supplied a list of websites hosted on the same server. 44. As regards the transparency of blocking measures, the Government submitted that the applicant should have consulted Roskomnadzor’s website. Indeed, Roskomnadzor provides a web service (http://blocklist.rkn.gov.ru/) which enables anyone to find out whether a website has been blocked and indicates the legal basis, the date and number of the blocking decision and the issuing body. It does not, however, give access to the text of the blocking decision, any indication of the reasons for the measure or information about avenues of appeal. Nor does Russian legislation make any provision for third-party notification of blocking decisions in circumstances where they have a collateral effect on the rights of other website owners. The applicant had no access to the blocking decision: it had not been produced in the domestic proceedings and the Russian courts had rejected his disclosure request. 45. Lastly, as regards the proceedings which the applicant instituted to challenge the incidental effects of the blocking order, there is no indication that the judges considering his complaint sought to weigh up the various interests at stake, in particular by assessing the need to block access to all websites sharing the same IP address. The domestic courts did not apply the Plenary Supreme Court’s Ruling no. 21 of 27 June 2013, which required them to have regard to the criteria established in the Convention in its interpretation by the Court (see Lashmankin and Others v. Russia, nos. 57818/09 and 14 others, § 217, 7 February 2017). In reaching their decision, the courts confined their scrutiny to establishing that Roskomnadzor had acted in accordance with the letter of the law. However, in the Court’s view, a Convention-compliant review should have taken into consideration, among other elements, the fact that such a measure, by rendering large quantities of information inaccessible, substantially restricted the rights of Internet users and had a significant collateral effect (see Ahmet Yıldırım, cited above, § 66). 46. The Court reiterates that it is incompatible with the rule of law if the legal framework fails to establish safeguards capable of protecting individuals from excessive and arbitrary effects of blocking measures, such as those in issue in the instant case. When exceptional circumstances justify the blocking of illegal content, a State agency making the blocking order must ensure that the measure strictly targets the illegal content and has no arbitrary or excessive effects, irrespective of the manner of its implementation. Any indiscriminate blocking measure which interferes with lawful content or websites as a collateral effect of a measure aimed at illegal content or websites amounts to arbitrary interference with the rights of owners of such websites. In the light of its examination of the Russian legislation as applied in the instant case, the Court concludes that the 14

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