Maxim Ali has spoken to RBC about the options to remove defamatory stories from the internet

Russian Business Channel (RBC) has published an article on the topic of potential measures to combat defamatory content on the internet. Amongst the main recommendations was one put forward by Head of the IP/IT Practice at Maxima Legal, Maxim Ali.

Maxim commented that one of the variants could be making a claim directly against the owner of the site for the removal of negative information that has been published by an anonymous source. “In this regard a judgment made by the Constitutional Court in 2013 assists. The decision confirmed that a victim has a right in any situation to demand that the administrator of a website remove defamatory information which has been posted by a user. This approach works even if a website is not a media website and if the site is without moderation. The position of the Constitutional Court has had a positive influence on the practice and has been partly responsible for the inclusion on social networks and other services of a feature to complain about content posted by others”, commented Maxim Ali to RBC.

At the same time, Maxim noted that when submitting a claim it is necessary to have information about the ownership of the site, and should the owner be a foreign legal entity or individual, then enforcing a decision of a Russian court will be very difficult.

To read the full text of the article, please see the RBC website.