Belarusian state telco Beltelecom has blocked access to Russian gay and lesbian web-sites, claiming the subject matter on the sites is obscene. In October 2004, the Belarusian National Anti-pornography and Violence Commission decided that three Russian websites, Gay.ru, Gaily.ru, and Qguis.ru, contained obscene language and photos with "indications of pornography" and recommended access to the sites be denied to internet surfers in Belarus.
Requests for the sites are blocked by BelPack (Beltelecom branch) network routers.
In the last week, Beltelecom has carried out the order of the commission. This is the first time in Belarus that Beltelecom has blocked internet sites following an official order.
Previously, when blocking websites, i.e., during the 2001 and 2004 presidential elections, Beltelecom had claimed that access was denied due to technical reasons such as network overloading.
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