THIRD SECTION CASE OF BULGAKOV v. RUSSIA (Application no. 20159/15) JUDGMENT Article 10 • Freedom to receive and impart information • Access blocked to entire website because of one piece of prohibited material and continued blocking even after material had been removed • Wholesale blocking of access to an entire website being an extreme measure comparable to banning a newspaper or television station • Blocking access to a website’s IP address having practical effect of extending scope of blocking order far beyond illegal content originally targeted • Blocking formula employed by court not featuring in any primary legislation or implementing regulations • Domestic law lacking safeguards against excessive and arbitrary effects of blocking measures • Notification and involvement of website owners in blocking proceedings not required by law • Participation of local Internet service provider not sufficient to endow proceedings with adversarial character • Domestic courts’ failure to perform a Conventioncompliant review considering less intrusive means or assessing an impact of the blocking measure • Unlawful refusal to lift blocking order after the removal of illegal content Article 13 in conjunction with Article 10 • Effective remedy • Failure of courts to consider the substance of grievance or to examine lawfulness or proportionality of effects of blocking order STRASBOURG 23 June 2020 FINAL 16/11/2020 This judgment has become final under Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision.