Propaganda Through Piracy: the "Clean Sky" Initiative Added to the List of Streaming Services of the Aggressor State

The other day, the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting supplemented the List of audiovisual media services on order and services of audiovisual service providers of the aggressor state.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, the fight against illegal content has taken on a new meaning, since, in addition to stealing the content of rights holders, Internet pirates, as a rule, give viewers access to the content of the aggressor state, thereby spreading hostile narratives, propaganda and fakes.

"The protection of intellectual property was and remains an important area of ​​activity of media market players, however, currently the issue of protecting our media space from propaganda and harmful content from the Russian Federation is urgent. Therefore, we continue to consistently work to clean the Ukrainian media space from harmful and illegal content," comments Vyacheslav Mienko, head of the "Clean Sky" Initiative.

The updated list includes popular resources that were distributed by both propaganda channels of Russian television and Ukrainian media channels without the permission of the latter:

• Shara-TV;
• ILookTV and its mirrors RuLook, ZeDom, MeLord, VipDrive, JinoPro, ISeeTV, TVLider;
• AntiFriz;
• IPTV ONLINE;
• TVBOOM.

The "Clean Sky" initiative, with the assistance of the Smartsolutions team of lawyers, professionally collected an evidence base that confirms the "pro-Russian" orientation of media services, in accordance with the criteria established by the Law of Ukraine "On Media", in particular:

• using Russian as the default interface language of the state language of the aggressor state (occupier state);
• availability of service rules and policies based on the national legislation of the aggressor state (occupier state);
• the possibility of paying for access to the service in national currency and with the help of payment systems of the aggressor state (occupier state);
• providing access to viewing foreign linear media, the distribution of which on the territory of Ukraine is limited in accordance with the requirements of the law;
• placement of advertising information aimed at the audience of the aggressor state (occupier state).

Thus, the team prepared a series of appeals to the National Council, which after consideration and careful verification were approved.

 Earlier, thanks to the efforts of the "Clean Sky" Initiative, the National Council included a large number of pro-Russian services in the list of services of the aggressor state. Currently, the List includes more than 240 websites that violate the law, and another addition to this List is expected in the near future.

According to Part 1 of Article 123 of the Law of Ukraine "On Media", it is prohibited to distribute audiovisual media services on the territory of Ukraine on the order and services of audiovisual service providers of the aggressor state, which are included in the List. In accordance with the requirements of the law, providers of electronic communication services are obliged to limit access to relevant websites on the territory of Ukraine.