Popular torrent site shut down in Russia; best alternative websites you can still use

Roskomnadzor has ordered search engines to remove torrent site Rutracker.org that was banned by the Russian government last year.

Popular torrent site Rutracker.org, which has been banned by Russia a couple of years ago over allegations of copyright violation, will now reportedly be shown the doors in the country as it will no longer appear in online search results.

Media watchdog Roskomnadzor had blocked Rutracker.org in January 2016 after the Russian government banned it in November 2015 over violation of copyrights.

Roskomnadzor has ordered search engines to block the controversial torrent site, according to Izvestia (via The Moscow Times).

The Russian government has amended its anti-piracy law to block torrent sites and President Vladimir Putin has signed it. Roskomnadzor has been empowered to ban any mirror websites that it finds violating anti-piracy law within 24 hours. The law was supposed to come into force on October 1 but only the Mail.Ru reportedly complied with the order.

Izvestia reported that search giants like Google, Bing, Yandex and Sputnik failed to follow the order. Roskomnadzor spokesman Vadim Ampelonsky told the paper that it would send non-compliant letters to the search engines to block the banned website from search results.

Google has removed the same website from its search result in India. It has been blocked as per the directions received from Department of Telecommunications, Government of India.

The Russian government has also banned internet proxy services – VPNs – and it will come into effect in November.

Several attempts have been made by government authorities, agencies and organisations from different countries to shut down popular torrent sites over the years but the efforts have been met with only partial success. Dozens of torrent sites, including the most popular being Torrentz.eu, YIFY and Popcorn Time have been closed down but there still many that allow free downloads of movies, TV shows etc.

Some of the best alternative torrent sites that are currently active are The Pirate Bay, RARBG, 1337X, LimeTorrents, TorrentDownloads, Sky Torrents, IsoHunt, YTS.AG, Torrentz2, KAT, TorrentProject, and EZTV.