Russia has permanently blocked Dailymotion, the online video service owned by Vivendi.
According to Billboard and Hollywood Reporter, the move follows repeated complaints from Gazprom Media that the site was hosting illegal TV content. Although some of the content was deleted after court rulings throughout 2016, it kept on reappearing.
In the end, the Moscow City Court decided to ban Dailymotion on the grounds that it was repeatedly violating Russian copyright law by hosting shows from Pyatnitsa, one of the TV channels operated by Gazprom Media.
However, when contacted by Vedomosti, a representative of Dailymotion said that the company had not received any complaints from copyright holders about the violation of copyright and plans to contact the Russian authorities to remedy the situation.
A complete block on Dailymotion, which is the world’s third most popular online service in the world after YouTube and vimeo, is expected to come into effect today (Friday, January 27).
