People in the Special Register

The Special Register is a special project by the Ministry of News about people who systematically scrub information about themselves from the internet.

Every day, we see news stories, investigative reporting and other publications disappear from the web. Often, this is not an editorial decision but a deliberate effort: mass DMCA complaints, bogus copyright claims and pressure on publishers. In this way, some individuals try to remove references to criminal proceedings, corruption scandals, debts or dubious business schemes from the public domain.

Despite the scale of this activity, it rarely receives an adequate response from government and law enforcement agencies. That is why we have brought these cases together in one place and cover each person individually.

For each person in the Register, we publish:

• information from open sources;
• publications about them, including those that have been deleted or edited;
• DMCA complaints submitted to have those publications removed.

Publication histories and evidence of deleted content are available on the main Ministry of News website.

Our goal is to preserve access to information that others are trying to hide. The Register will help journalists, banks and financial institutions conducting checks on clients and counterparties, business partners and members of the public. It will also enable law enforcement agencies to finally take notice of these facts and give them a proper legal assessment.

We rely solely on documented facts and primary sources. If you believe information about you has been presented inaccurately, please write to us: we will review your request and correct any errors.