The State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted today in the third reading a bill on violation of the rights and freedoms of citizens in the field of information, which will allow fines of up to 3 million rubles, slowing down traffic and blocking resources that censor Russian media.
“We are convinced that this law is necessary to ensure that the constitutional rights of Russian citizens to receive, process, and disseminate information are protected,” said the author of the bill, United Russia deputy Alexander Khinshtein.
LDPR deputy Andrei Svintsov expressed doubts that the law could be applied to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
“Let’s assume that Roskomnadzor sent the necessary documents to the owners of these companies. What will they do? Nothing. You and I will be a laughing stock. We have already adopted many laws, to which neither Facebook nor Google react,” Svintsov said.
He considers it a bad idea to block popular Western social networks before the Duma elections.
“Russian citizens will lose the opportunity to use YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. Some colleagues say: thank God. Have you asked the youth? You understand that before the elections you will turn all the youth and others against you,” Svintsov said.
His colleague from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, Alexey Kurinny, expressed doubts that Roskomnadzor will be able to technically block Western social networks.
United Russia deputy Sergei Boyarsky called the law “an effective tool for containing and protecting information sovereignty.”
“I would like to note that we do not differentiate between domestic and foreign sites. The law is the same for everyone - censorship is unacceptable,” Boyarsky said.
At the same time, he is confident that blocking of popular domestic or foreign resources will not be used in a real situation.
Let us note that the opposition’s statements about the ineffectiveness of fines and the threat of blocking are refuted by the successful experience of Turkey, a country that has recently demonstrated an independent policy.
In November, Turkey fined Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Periscope, Youtube and TikTok 10 million Turkish lira ($1,18 million) each for failing to appoint representatives in Ankara, as required by a new law that came into force on 1 October.
The fines were introduced after the network giants were only two days late in complying with the law.
Subsequently, if they failed to comply with the requirements of the Turkish side within 30 days from the date of notification of the first fine, the companies were threatened with new sanctions of 30 million Turkish liras. And then – traffic limitation from 50 to 90%.
As a result, in mid-December it became known that Youtube decided to appoint a representative of the platform in Turkey, as required by the new Turkish law on social networks. According to Youtube’s statement, the company will be represented in the republic by a legal entity.