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Russia blocks major website for worker complaints

By:   []

Date: 2021-09

Russian authorities have blocked a leading website for employee complaints following a successful legal case by a Moscow real estate firm – the latest internet block by the country’s communications regulator.

Antijob, the site in question, has been in operation for 17 years, and hosts thousands of anonymous complaints about Russian employers. Complaints made on the website range from long hours and deceptive management practices to abusive working conditions and wage delays.

Roskomnadzor, the Russian communications regulator, blocked Antijob on 11 September after an online real estate broker, PIK Broker, won a defamation case against seven websites, including Antijob, that hosted complaints allegedly written by former employees. Under Russian defamation law, websites, including individual web pages, can be blocked for defamatory content.

The alleged former employees of the company, a subsidiary of leading Moscow property developer PIK, had left reviews that included claims about “unprofessional” conduct by management and mass firing of employees.

PIK Broker stated in its legal claim that this information was defamatory of the company. In its decision on 4 May this year, the Moscow Arbitration Court found that the alleged reviews of PIK Broker were “false”, “defamed [the company’s] business reputation” and were thus banned from circulation in the Russian Federation.

In a comment to openDemocracy, PIK Broker said that it had “taken all possible measures to regulate this dispute outside of court”, but had been “compelled” to defend its reputation in court.

“Russian legislation does not forbid persons from expressing their opinion on working for any organisation,” the company said, “but if that information is false and harms the organisation’s business reputation, then its legal rights and interests should be defended.”
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