Tajikistan unblocks access to Odnoklassniki website
DUSHANBE. Aug 21 (Interfax) - Tajik Internet providers have unblocked access to the country's most popular social-networking site, Odnoklassniki, users said on Thursday, sharing their joy on other social-networking sites.
"At last," wrote one user under the name of Shakhnoza.
The Odnoklassniki website was blocked by national Internet providers and mobile operators under verbal direction from the Communications Service on July 19, 2014.
Ten days after the website was blocked, the Service, which is a governmental body, denied accusations of its involvement and blamed Internet providers for the website's inaccessibility in the republic.
The head of the Association of Internet Providers issued a statement shortly after the blocking that the increase in activity of Tajik militants fighting alongside rebels against government forces in Syria and on the YouTube video sharing portal had forced the Tajik authorities to block these websites.
The Odnoklassniki website has nearly 400,000 Tajik users, which is one-third of all Internet users in the republic. For comparison: the figure is ten times the number of Tajiks registered on Facebook.
Internet-provider executives said on the condition of anonymity that it is the Communications Service which has been issuing oral instructions to block any given website. Providers have to comply out of fear of losing their license, which is issued by this government authority.
The OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) has criticized such moves by the Tajik authorities and suggested making website blocking legal, i.e. on the basis of a court ruling.
Experts said that by blocking certain websites, the authorities had failed to achieve their goal: Tajik Internet users, having learned from earlier website-blocking experience, go online and share ways to bypass the ban by posting links to proxy servers and web gateway software.
The YouTube website is still be blocked in Tajikistan.
