SPECIAL COLLECTION OF THE CASE LAW ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION the petitioners were not able to prove that the “voluntary enforcement procedure” breached any fundamental rights or that social media platforms were not independent in their discretion, the Court considered the “voluntary enforcement” lawful. 3. Bans of services Substantially more aggressive measures have been taken by less democratic states. Many have blocked internet services completely, such as social media platforms and the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, for not complying with their orders to remove content they deemed unlawful. In some instances, courts were able to stop such general bans, often after the platforms conceded to remove at least parts of the controversial content. In May 2010, the Lahore High Court in Pakistan lifted a ban on Facebook, which was based on an individual’s petition contesting Facebook’s (and the Pakistani government’s) lack of action against a “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day” page. However, while many legal experts stated that a blanket ban violated several rights enshrined within Pakistan’s Constitution, including the right to freedom of expression and information, the Court based its decision on the assurance by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) “that the ‘blasphemous material’” would no longer be available in Pakistan.” In Russia, the Tagansky District Court of Moscow granted in 2018 the request of Roskomnadzor to block access to Telegram in Russia because the company had not disclosed keys for decrypting messages sent over its network. Russia’s Federal Security Services (FSS) had asked Telegram to submit messages and the respective encryption keys of six mobile numbers. Telegram declined the request as complying would, among other things, violate the right to privacy of its users. The Court reasoned that since Telegram operated in Russia it was under an obligation to comply with the laws of the country and to provide the Russian federal authorities with the means to decrypt messages sent over its network. The decisions on the means to block Telegram in Russia (an attempt which ultimately failed) was left to Roskomnadzor. The Madras High Court in India reversed (2019) its own interim order, which directed authorities to ban the download of the TikTok application, after considering the safety features available on the app to deal with inappropriate and obscene content reported on its platform. The Court emphasized that TikTok had removed about six million videos containing “doubtful” content after its interim order. Thus, it was convinced that TikTok had a proactive take-down mechanism to deal with content abuse and complaints. However, the argument that such a ban also violated the platform’s right to freedom of expression, as guaranteed by Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution, was dismissed because the rights of an intermediary such as TikTok, which created platforms for commercial purposes, are not protected. In Turkey, the government issued a ban on all language editions of Wikipedia after it refused to remove two articles in English that claimed the Turkish Government was sponsoring terrorist organizations in Syria. The Turkish Constitutional Court held (2019) that the restriction—completely blocking all access to the Wikipedia website—was not justified by a pressing need and, as a blanket ban on access to the entire website, constituted a violation of freedom of expression and the right to access information. The Court emphasized that the interpretation of legal grounds such as “maintaining national security and public order” and the “prevention of offenses,” in a broad sense, might lead to arbitrary practices and violate freedom of expression. However, the Court also noted the “goodwill” of independent and volunteer Wikipedia editors who extensively modified the encyclopedic entries and tried to reformulate them in a more impartial and objective manner. Verdicts on the legality of blanket bans were not only issued by national courts. Regional courts like the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have 22