International law perspective on Internet censorship: a case study of Russia`s hybrid war against Ukraine

Burdiak Pavlo (2020) International law perspective on Internet censorship: a case study of Russia`s hybrid war against Ukraine. Külkereskedelmi Kar.

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Absztrakt (kivonat)

Researcher: Burdiak Pavlo Thesis title: "International law perspective on Internet censorship: a case study of Russia's hybrid war against Ukraine" Training programme: International Relations (MA) Internal adviser: Dr.habil. Bayer Judit External adviser: PD Mag. Dr. Matthias C. Kettemann Summary: With the advent of the Internet, the opportunities for communication have grown significantly, but so have the challenges to the preservation of human rights online. The states began adopting increasingly disproportionate laws for censoring the information flow on the Internet, which led to detrimental consequences for the freedom of expression on the Web. In this respect, it is essential to investigate the efforts of the international community to respond to these challenges. Therefore, the purpose of my research was to examine the international legal framework for the protection of freedom of expression online and to determine the conditions under which states are allowed to censor online content and speech. Another objective was to gain a better comprehension of certain state's online censorship policies in light of the international legal framework for permissible Internet limitations. This was done through the analysis of the selected cases of Internet censorship in Russia in the view of the Ukrainian issue. With regard to the first objective, the thesis focused on the comparative analysis of the developments within the UN and the CoE. The first research question was the following: "Do the respective approaches of the UN and the CoE towards the protection of freedom of expression online contradict or complement each other?" After analyzing the relevant body of soft law and hard law elaborated by the UN and the CoE, I found that their regulatory approaches towards the freedom of expression online are complementary. In particular, both organizations recognize the applicability of the existing "offline" legislation on the freedom of expression to the Internet. As regards the limitations of the freedom of expression online, the policy frameworks of the two organizations stipulate that any limitation must comply with the requirements of the so-called three-part, cumulative test, namely the principles of legality, legitimacy, and necessity (proportionality). Thereafter, I applied the "central case" methodology to set up a benchmark for permissible Internet limitations, which was subsequently employed to analyze the censorship cases in Russia. Within the scope of this research, the "central case" comprised the principles of legality, legitimacy, and necessity (proportionality). Concerning the second research objective, the thesis shed light on the Internet censorship component of Russia's hybrid war against Ukraine with a view to its compliance with the central case requirements. More explicitly, the two selected online censorship cases were analyzed: the proceedings against R. Kashapov and Kasparov.ru. Mr. Kashapov was the activist imprisoned for sharing social media posts condemning Russia's aggressive policies towards Ukraine. Website Kasparov.ru was blocked for publishing the material critical of Russian intervention in Crimea. In this regard, the second research question was formulated as: "Do Internet limitation measures imposed by Russian authorities in relation to R. Kashapov and Kasparov.ru comply with the international law principles of legality, legitimacy, necessity and proportionality?" After investigating the proceedings against R. Kashapov, I found that Russian authorities` actions were compliant with the international principles of legality and legitimacy. However, they failed to fulfill the necessity and proportionality requirement. As regards blacklisting the website Kasparov.ru, the study concluded that the state authorities met the legitimacy criteria, but they failed to account for the principles of legality and necessity (proportionality). Accordingly, in the cases of Rafis Kashapov and Kasparov.ru, the actions of the Russian prosecutors and judiciary did not fulfill all the conditions prescribed by the central case, meaning that they violated R. Kashparov's right to freedom of opinion online and Kasparov.ru's right to freedom of information on the Internet. Furthermore, this paper found that Moscow's Internet censorship activities as part of waging a hybrid war against Ukraine were not limited to the cases of Rafis Kashapov and Kasparov.ru. The preliminary analysis of the state's interference with the freedom of expression and information online in the proceedings against Darya Polyudova, Andrei Bubeyev, and Public Control Group suggested that these censorship cases were, to say the least, controversial from the international law perspective and required further investigation. The significance of this research is four-fold. Firstly, it presented a comprehensive comparative overview of the approaches undertaken by the UN and the CoE towards tackling the issues of the freedom of expression online. Secondly, the study extrapolated the ECtHR precedents regulating the offline freedom of expression to the Internet space. Thirdly, it employed an innovative central case framework for the analysis of Internet censorship in Russia. Finally, the thesis emphasized the substantial impact of Russia's hybrid war against Ukraine on Moscow's online censorship and called for more considerable attention to this topic.

Intézmény

Budapesti Gazdasági Egyetem

Kar

Külkereskedelmi Kar

Tanszék

Nemzetközi Kapcsolatok Tanszék

Tudományterület/tudományág

NEM RÉSZLETEZETT

Szak

Nemzetközi Tanulmányok

Konzulens(ek)

Mű típusa:	diplomadolgozat (NEM RÉSZLETEZETT)
Kulcsszavak:	Oroszország, Ukrajna, cenzúra, hibrid hadviselés, nemzetközi jog
SWORD Depositor:	Archive User
Felhasználói azonosító szám (ID):	Archive User
Rekord készítés dátuma:	2020. Nov. 29. 19:42
Utolsó módosítás:	2022. Okt. 06. 12:40

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