Russia to close down 594 websites on suicide

The head of Rospotrebnadzor, Russia's Chief Medical Officer, Gennady Onishchenko, announced on Tuesday that his department decided to close down 594 websites that contained information about the techniques and methods of committing suicide.

"We have received 703 addresses from the Russian Information Agency. We have reviewed them and decided to close down 594 sites. A hundred and one websites contained no forbidden information. 187 more websites are still being analyzed," Onishchenko told reporters.

Noteworthy, social networks serve as the main source of information on suicide.

In this case, the department acts on the basis of the law "On the protection of children from information harmful to their health and development," which came into force in Russia on September 1, 2012. The document provides for the creation of the automated information system "The single register of domain names, indicators of webpages on the Internet and network addresses for the identification of sites containing the information the distribution of which is prohibited in the Russian Federation."

This includes instructions for suicide and drug manufacturing, as well as child pornography. In this case, the agency has the authority to close down the sites without trial. In the case of other types of information contained on the sites, the decision to close them will have to be made at court.