Here's Why So Many are Abandoning the LiveJournal Ship

If you are at all current on ‘net news, you probably already know that users are closing their LiveJournal accounts in droves. And you may even know that the reason is that LiveJournal is now fully under Russian control - and Russian law.

And if you are a particularly dedicated reader of Internet news, you may even know that the concern is over certain Russian laws that criminalize, and I quote, “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relationships.”

But, unless you want to really dig deep down into the nitty gritty, and do some translating from Russian to English, you may not know, with apologies to the late Paul Harvey, the rest of the story.

1. How LiveJournal Ended Up in Russian Hands

LiveJournal was founded by Brad Fitzpatrick in 1999 (in fact, April 15th will be LiveJournal’s 18th birthday). In 2005 LiveJournal was acquired by Six Apart; you may know some of their other offerings, such as Movable Type and Vox.

In 2007, Six Apart sold LiveJournal to Russian company SUP Media. But back then, nobody paid the sale a lot of attention because LiveJournal was still operating out of California and LiveJournal’s servers were still in California.

2. How LiveJournal’s Users Ended Up Subject to Russian Law

Between 2007 and December 2016, LiveJournal’s practices and assets started being transferred to Russia. In December 2016 that transition was complete, including the moving of LiveJournal’s servers to Russia. This means that everything associated with LiveJournal is now under Russian control and, importantly, subject to Russian law.

Everything.

Including LiveJournal users.

3. LiveJournal’s New Terms of Service

LiveJournal’s shiny new Russian TOS includes language that makes very clear that LiveJournal users - especially any who garner 3,000 or more visitors a day - are subject to Article 10.2 of the Federal Act of the Russian Federation No. 149-ФЗ.

Then there’s the catchy little phrase in the TOS banning the posting of “advertising and/or political solicitation materials unless otherwise directly specified in a separate agreement between User and the Administration.”

Moreover, LiveJournal’s English language version of their Terms of Service states very plainly that the English version is not the version that is binding on (even English speaking) LiveJournal users. Only the Russian version is the binding version, so in order to know to what you are agreeing, you have to understand Russian.

(The article linked below provides an English Google translation of the actual Russian TOS, as well as a link to the English version, and to the English language version of Russian law Article 10.2 of the Federal Act of the Russian Federation No. 149-ФЗ.)

4. The Russian Laws

So what does Article 10.2 of the Federal Act of the Russian Federation No. 149-ФЗ say?

Among other things, Article 10.2 says that bloggers who receive 3,000 or more visitors a day are legally, potentially criminally, responsible for the content on their blog. This includes any material that can be construed as promoting “nontraditional sexual relationships.” While the laws are crafted to make it seem as if they are about protecting children (with language like “promotion among children”), it’s easy to see that with a public blog, across which children may wander, it can be applied to anyone.

Moreover, as Human Rights Watch points out, violators of these laws face “stiff fines, and in the case of foreigners, up to 15 days’ detention and deportation.”

5. The End Result

The end result of this is that a multitude of LiveJournal users are jumping ship. And not just those who are in or who are sympathetic to the LGBT community, but pretty much anybody who values free speech, and freedom of the press. And not just because it’s the principle of the thing, but because of the very real concern of actually being harassed, if not prosecuted.

For a more in-depth treatment of this topic, along with full English versions of both the LiveJournal TOS and Russian Law Article 10.2 of the Federal Act of the Russian Federation No. 149-ФЗ, you can check out this article at The Internet Patrol.