The website of the international sign language dictionary Spread The Sign was blocked in Russia, Russian sign language teacher Anton Zalozny drew attention to this. According to Roskomsvoboda, access to the domain was limited on February 19.
Screenshot: Roskomsvoboda website
The Mediazona correspondent also confirmed the blocking by checking the Roskomnadzor register. It states that “access is limited to the site.” From Russia, the site with the dictionary cannot be opened without the help of VPN services.
Screenshot: Roskomnadzor website
What exactly became the reason for the blocking is unknown. On the main page of the site there are windows with sections “Advertising” and “Information about partners”. One of them contains a still frame from the air of Channel One, during which Marina Ovsyannikova appeared behind TV presenter Ekaterina Andreeva with a poster “No war. Stop the war. Don't believe the propaganda. They are lying to you here.” In the second window there is a flag of Ukraine with the inscription “Stop the war Stop the war.”
The project to create a multilingual online dictionary of sign languages was initiated back in 2006, initially only six languages were represented in it, now there are several dozen . In particular, the dictionary contains Russian sign language, Belarusian sign language, Pakistani sign language, as well as European sign languages and others. According to the dictionary's website, it is managed by the non-profit association European Sign Language Center. There are now more than 400,000 gestures in the dictionary.